The Worlds Strongest
by Kylemoor
Summary: AU Ranma Saotomae, daughter of Genma and Nodoka Saotomae, has been training her entire life to meet and become the 'worlds strongest', a fighter who's skill is beyond that of any other fighter in the world. Please note that many people will be OOC.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 or any of the characters from the manga/anime. Any of the other characters in the story came directly from the strange world of my imagination.

I recently got a review that gave me a more accurate translation into German than what I had for "The World's Strongest". So I decided to update the story with the more appropriate phrase. And I made the format more pleasing to the eye. (11/11/2009)

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The World's Strongest

-_1962-_

Cologne glared at her opponent, standing about thirty feet away from her. They had been locked in combat for a long time now and Cologne could feel her age catching up to her. She hadn't faced an opponent this good in nearly sixty years.

'I must end this soon,' she thought, breathing hard in the break in the fighting, 'but how? The fighter I face appears to be superior in strength and stamina and is at least my equal in skill.' Deciding on a new attack pattern, she launched herself at her enemy.

Her opponent lazily evaded her attacks, sometimes blocking them, other times just sidestepping them with ease. Slowly, it became clear to Cologne that this fighter was beyond her ability to defeat. But this was not acceptable: her foe was MALE! He should be weaker than her. Men were the inferior gender!

'How is it that this _man_ is beating me so effortlessly?' Cologne mused to herself. Drawing on all her reserves, Cologne prepared herself for one last assault.

But it was in vain. Before she could even finish her preparations the man was suddenly directly behind her, delivering a blow to her neck that caused her to collapse.

"It's over," he said, "I've won. You cannot continue this fight. You are already on your final reserves of strength and I have yet to begin to feel the strain of battle. You lose no honor in admitting that your opponent is greater than you when your life is not at stake. Stop fighting while you still have the strength to return home." With that he turned and began to walk away.

"Just who are you?" Cologne called after him, "I've been trained to be an Amazonian warrior my entire life, which has been considerably long, and you defeated me as easily as I would one of my pupils. How long have you been fighting and who is your master?"

She had managed to rise to her feet by the end of her questions. 'Damn,' she thought, 'He struck a pressure point that makes me weak. I'll have to have someone determine which one and counter it later.' Cologne had originally thought to rebuke the man by attacking him while he thought she was too weak to continue, showing him that she was stronger than he was giving her credit for, but it appeared that he had planned on her doing that.

"My name is not important," the man casually said, "I am here to show you that men are not as inferior as you believe them to be, and before you ask; no I do not believe women to be inferior. My wife is my training partner, though right now she feels that there is no need to try and prove that women are not inferior to men. I am also here to tell you that the tradition of isolation the Amazons have is a weakness. In the outside world things have changed. While men still dominate society for the most part, women are not just the people who stay at home and raise the children. You have fallen behind the times."

"Are you saying that three thousand years of tradition are to be cast aside?" Cologne asked angrily.

"No," the man calmly said, "the old traditions of the world teaches discipline and honor to the next generation. But many of the old ways of thinking no longer hold value in the new age. To grow stronger, you must be able to continue to grow through the ages."

He turned to walk away again.

"You haven't answered my questions yet!" Cologne yelled at him.

"Which ones'," the man asked, "I have had many masters through the ages. While I am not as old as you are I am much older than I appear. Over the years I have faced many people devoted to the art and have rarely lost. In recent years an old fighter witnessed me fight in Baghdad and gave me a title in his native German language: _der Staerkste der Welt_. In rough translation it means "worlds' strongest" and to this day no fighter, man or woman, has been able to take that title from me."

"'Worlds' Strongest'!" scoffed Cologne, "the Amazons are the most elite warriors in the world…"

"Are they?" the man asked, turning back to Cologne, "if they were the strongest than you, one of the elders of your village and sensei to the younglings should have had no difficulty defeating me. Yet, here we are with me victorious: beating you as if I were a Master disciplining his unruly pupil."

Cologne opened her mouth to send back another retort, but closed it. The man was right. While she no longer competed in the ranking tournament to determine the village champion, she could beat any Amazon in the village, and she had been beaten without having her opponent breaking a sweat.

"How does one achieve your level of ability?" she asked, admitting that she had indeed been beaten.

"There is no one way of going about one's training that will ensure that you attain my level," the man said simply, "but opening your mind to the broad view of the world and not limiting yourself to a simple narrow view of existence is the first step of the path. Keep in mind that no two fighters are the same: each fighter must walk their path their own way."

"Now if you'll excuse me," the man said turning to leave again, "my wife is expecting dinner in about an hour and it's my turn to make it so I must leave now."

"Wait…" Cologne started, but the man was already gone, leaving so quickly it seemed like he had only been a shadow. Cologne turned to head back to the village. How was she going to be able to face the rest of the elders and the village? She, Cologne, Matriarch of the village had been defeated by a man. A MAN! Men were supposed to be weak in comparison to women, yet she had been defeated.

Cologne stopped short. What was the saying? The first few steps are the most difficult for you must take the first steps to commit yourself to the path? Something like that. That man had shown her the path that leads to his strength in his monologue after his victory. She knew what she had to do. But would the rest of the village be ready to make such a change? For three thousand years, the Amazonian village had remained isolated. The traditions, clothing, and general way of life had changed very little in those three thousand years. Perhaps it was time to end that. Cologne started back to the village as fast as her weary body could manage.

She had a lot of work ahead of her.

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_Authors note: So how was it? Lots of corny lines? A brilliant master piece? Let me know, please review._


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I believe that I said that I didn't own Ranma 1/2 in the prologue, I suppose that this holds true in the later chapters as well. So far none of the characters that I have made up have shown their faces yet, other than the 'worlds strongest' he is one of mine, I don't know exactly when they will show up or how many. The way I right this story is actually kinda interesting: I just sit down and type into my computer until I'm done with the chapter I'm working on. I don't really have much of a plan for how the story will unfold other than a general idea of what I want to happen and how I want it to end. Other than that I don't really know how long this story will be or what all will happen in it. Hopefully everything turns out well. Personally I feel that if I like what I've written the readers will at least be moderately pleased with the outcome.

Just so that everyone knows, I've decided that I don't want a bunch of cursed people that turn into various animals when doused with cold water in the story. For those of you who are now angrily planning my death, don't worry I'll have a few in there, but I don't think Ranma will be cursed (shocking isn't it?) but I think Genma will still be. Also many, if not all, of the people in this story will be a bit out of character. If anyone doesn't like that, well sorry, my story, I'll write it how I think it should go. I do plan on keeping things as close to incharacter as I can.

Enjoy.

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-_1998_-

The day for Soun Tendo started out like any other day would have. He got up early in the morning to prepare himself for the day, his morning routine before breakfast was simple: perform the gentle katas in preparation for his students. It had been several years since the death of his wife and while the pain of her memory was still present he could bear it for the sake of his daughters and teach in his dojo to support his family. Once he finished performing his katas it would be time for breakfast, Kasumi was usually up around the time that he was finishing and would have breakfast started at the very least. Even if she wasn't done just yet he was in no hurry, his dojo was connected to his house so he did not have to rush to work every day, and he would patiently wait for her to finish, usually by inspecting the dojo to make sure that the equipment he intended to use was present and in usable condition.

Once he sat down to eat it was not long before Nabiki, his second oldest daughter next to Kasumi, would come down in her school uniform. The three eldest members of the Tendo family would eat leisurely, sometimes talking about what they expected the day to be like, until it was almost time for Nabiki and Akane, the youngest, to head to school. At this time Akane would come rushing down the stairs, hurriedly eat her breakfast, and grab her school bag just as Nabiki was ready to leave. Soun would sigh as he watched the antics of his youngest daughter. Of the three of them, Akane was by far the most interested in Martial Arts and the School of Anything Goes. Yet of the three of them she was the most hot tempered and least disciplined. Unfortunately, she was far better than any of his other students so she had nobody to compete with her at her level accept himself, her father and sensei. For some reason it didn't click in her mind that the only way to obtain her fathers' level of ability was to have discipline and apply herself fully.

Of course Soun knew that that wasn't the only way to achieve his level, but it was by far the easiest way and having self-discipline made the rest of life much easier. Soun could easily rise from bed early in the morning every day because he had the mind set to allow him to do so. And because of this he could go about his routine at a much more relaxed pace than Akane did.

The rest of the day went smoothly. His students were diligent, many of them had far more discipline than Akane, but that was most likely due to having people their age at their level of ability and having people at **their**level of ability in the first place to compete against. Of all the techniques, katas, and forms Soun taught from his school of martial arts the thing he stressed the most was self-discipline. If the practitioner could not focus or take what they did seriously, he would say, they would never rise to greatness.

After his classes were over for the day, he would retrieve the mail and news, though he wouldn't open either until after dinner, and settle down with a book or plan what he would teach his students the next day. Kasumi would arrive home from her job at Ucchans, the proprietor being an old friend of his old training partners' daughter Ranma Saotome. Genma Saotome, his old friend, had recommended to Ukyo Kuonji's father that he come to Nerima and set up shop. Though her father could not be separated from his beloved restaurant, Ukyo had come to Souns' looking for a place to stay while earning enough money to start a restaurant of her own. When she had the money, she moved out of the Tendo house and set up shop in the space below her living quarters in the building. Kasumi had become fond of the girl and offered to help her, an offer which was happily accepted.

At the same time as Kasumi would arrive home, Nabiki and Akane would straggle after school and begin their own routines. Nabiki would work on her homework, she was a junior in high school and had a fair amount of it, and Akane would begin her work out. She would later receive instruction from Soun after her homework was done. Since this sometimes took most of the rest of the day, her instruction periods were sometimes limited to a quick spar so Soun could check on her progress or sometimes there would be no instruction time because it was too late. Soun had hoped that this would motivate Akane to organize herself more and become more focused but she only just accepted that she wouldn't always get instructed every night and went on with her 'routine'.

All in all, there was usually not a great deal of variation in the daily routines of the Tendos, but this was how things had been going for a few years now and the routine was a difficult one to break. However, as Soun went through the mail after the evening meal he came across a postcard that the moment he finished reading the short message on the back he knew that the normal routines of the Tendo family would soon change.

"Soun, we are leaving China and are headed for Nerima. Expect to arrive on April 12th. Ranma and Nodoka doing quite well. Hope this arrives before us. Genma."

'April 12th, eh,' Soun thought, 'that's tomorrow. ' "Well, the girls should know about this," he said out loud to himself, rising to gather his daughters. Kasumi was finishing the laundry on the main floor when he told her to meet in the main room in a few minutes. She nodded and continued her work, Soun turned to fetch his younger daughters from their rooms; Kasumi knew that it would take him a while to get them to come out so he let her continue what she was doing. She would be finished by the time he came downstairs anyway.

It took longer than he anticipated to coax Akane from her room. She was doing her homework and really wanted to have instruction time tonight so did not want to be interrupted. Eventually she agreed to come down and Soun moved on to Nabiki's room. Not needing to say anything other than "I need to talk with you, Akane, and Kasumi about something, be down in the main room as soon as you can" he returned to the main room downstairs where, sure enough, Kasumi sat waiting for everybody.

"Well, now that everyone is here," Soun began once the younger girls came down, "I can begin." "This had better be good, dad," Akane said, she had been in the middle of her English homework when Soun asked her to come down and it was the last thing she needed to finish before her instruction time with him. "Don't worry, Akane," Soun said calmly, "I wouldn't have gathered you all to tell you altogether if it wasn't. You will have plenty of time afterwards to do your homework and have some time in the dojo with me before the night is over. If you all stay quiet and let me speak this will be a short meeting." Akane blushed slightly at the gentle rebuke. "So what is it dad?" Nabiki asked. "It's this," Soun replied, holding up the postcard, "it's a postcard from my old friend and training partner Genma Saotome. He went on a training trip with his family to refine his skill and train his daughter, Ranma, at various training sites in China. His wife, Nodoka, also went along to teach Ranma a basic education, along with how to cook, amongst various other things. It was decided before they began their journey that they would end here and stay in the guest room until they could find a house for themselves in Nerima. Though that may not happen very soon or at all depending on how things play out."

"What do you mean, father," Kasumi asked. "I mean that at the time of my marriage to your mother, Genma and I decided that we should merge our schools of martial arts either by the marriage of a son and a daughter or though teaching if only sons or only daughters were present. Should we go ahead with this plan, the Saotome's may not leave for several months, years, or may not leave at all and simply live here. Since both of us have only daughters, it would be awkward to merge the schools via a marriage, so Genma will most likely teach here at the dojo. I am not sure what Nodoka would do; while she knows a good deal of Genma's school she has never been terribly interested in martial arts. We would have to see once they got here.

"The reason why I am telling you all this is because they are due to arrive here soon. They anticipated arriving on the 12th when they mailed this postcard so I would assume that they will arrive within the next few days, if they don't arrive tomorrow." "If that is true I will need to get the guest room prepared for them," with that Kasumi rose and headed for the guest room to get it ready for the awaited guests. "Hmmm, Ranma's a girl you say?" Nabiki asked with a sly grin on her face, "I wonder if I'll be able to get some money of distributing pictures of her or information about what she's like." "You know I don't like that, Nabiki," Akane glared at her older sister, "I have enough boys trying to get me to go out with me right now and I don't Ranma will appreciate what you do to raise cash any more than I do." Akane, being a bit of a tomboy, had no interest in boys at all, much to the dismay of a vast majority of the boys at Furinkan high school. Many boys vied for the affections of the freshman girl, attracted to her athletic ability and attractive features. All were rejected violently.

"Just you wait, little sister," Nabiki said with a knowing smile on her face, "one day you will practically pay me to distribute pictures of you to a specific boy whom you have developed a crush for in the attempt to get him to notice you." "Oh, and just who would _that_be, big sister?" Akane's question dripped with sarcasm. "Don't know yet, Akane," Nabiki giggled, "said boy hasn't shown his face at school yet. I'll know who he is when you know who he is." She was still smirking as she headed back upstairs to finish her homework. "Don't let her bother you, Akane," Soun said gently, "but you know what she says is probably right. One day you probably will meet a boy that you are interested in dating, whether you will _pay_ her to give him photos of you is another question completely."

"I don't even want to go there dad," Akane grumbled, "is there enough time for some training after I finish my homework?" Soun looked at the clock. It was 8:39. "If you can get it done by 9:00 I can train with you until 10:00," he promised. "Good," Akane hurried back up to her room. She only had a little bit left to do on her homework and then she'd get to train for a full hour, something that rarely happened these days. Soun rose and headed for the dojo, he figured that Akane would finish soon, maybe not exactly at nine but within ten minutes or so and he would need to get ready for her.

Sure enough, at 9:07, Akane came hurrying into the dojo, already in her gi, ready for whatever her father could throw at her.

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_Well, how'd I do? Everything good so far? Or am I completely off my rocker? Let me know, please review._


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma and all that other good stuff, yadda yadda, you know the drill. As you should have noticed in the last chapter Ranma is a girl in this story. I like the stories where Ranma is either predominatly female of is at least comfortable with his curse. About the other characters in Ranma, I don't know how many of them I intend to use at this point. Some of them I may just reference their existance, or past relationship to a person, others may be side characters that don't get used much but are at least in the story.

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-_April 12__th_-

Somewhere in Nerima two women, a teenage of about 16 or so and an older woman who could have been in her mid-thirties, sat on a bench casually eating some ice cream. The only things that seemed unusual about the girls (what was unusual about two women eating ice cream in a park?) was that they both had red hair, though the older lady had a much darker tone to hers, and that the younger one was dressed in Chinese clothing. "Well, Ranma," the older one said, "let's hope that your father manages to lose his pursuers soon. The Tendo's should be expecting us sometime today and it would be best not to keep them waiting all day." "Don't worry mom," Ranma said, "dad's probably playing with them. I mean, he could easily outpace those guys easily even in the condition that he was in at the time so the only reason why he is taking so long is because he's enjoying himself." "Let's hope you're right," her mother said.

"In any case, I should let you know what our plans are for the foreseeable future," her mother continued, "the current plan is for us to stay with the Tendo's and for you to go to school at the local high school." "Is it a girls' private school?" Ranma asked hopefully. "Sorry, no it isn't," her mother replied shaking her head, "we don't have the money to send you to a school like that, this school is not only much more affordable, but is within walking distance so you don't have to take a train or bus." "Damn," Ranma grumbled, "the boys better be better behaved at this school than the last one I went to." "I would hope that they are simply because they are older," her mother reassured her, "but keep in mind that you are in high school now. I wouldn't be surprised if they are more ambitious and persistent when it comes to trying to gain your attention. But don't worry, the Tendo girls will be with you and one of them is your age."

"At least I have that going for me," sighed Ranma as she discarded her ice cream bowl in the garbage can next to the bench. She still remembered the last school she went to the last time they stayed in an area long enough for her to attend a school. All the boys tried to get her attention, hoping that she would 'go out with them'. Like twelve year olds did stuff like that, Ranma had thought. Her parents tried to tell her that it might not be as uncommon as she thought, but she never believed them. She wasn't interested in them anyway. Though she had to admit that the boys she had met in the Amazon village in China were kinda cute. 'No, Ranma,' she mentally berated herself, 'we don't like boys that way. All they want is a bit of action from the great Genma Saotome's daughter.' Ranma had been surprised at how well known her father's name was. Though she shouldn't have been as surprised as she was; her father, after all, was an excellent martial artist who had trained all over Eastern Asia with his master and training partner, Soun Tendo, who was probably equally as well known.

"In any case," her mother said, "since today is Sunday we don't see any problem with you picking up with the rest of the students at the beginning of the week tomorrow. Is this alright with you?" "I guess it is," replied Ranma. At this time a rather large panda came ambling up to them and sat on the ground in front of them. "Hello there, dear," Ranma's mother greeted the panda, "would you like what's left of my ice cream." She held out the little bowl in offering. 'Thank you, Nodoka' the panda held up a sign out of nowhere and began licking out the bowl. "So, what took you so long dad?" Ranma asked with a mischievous glint in her eye. 'Persistent bastards' the panda's sign read 'every time I thought I had lost them another one seemed to show up'. "Oh," Ranma said, "I, uh, thought you were playing with them, letting them almost catch you and then just slipping right through them." 'I was' the panda wrote 'it's just that they kept coming, and coming and were more of them than I knew about at first'.

"Ha!" Ranma cheered, "so I was right." "Yes, dear you were," Nodoka calmly said, "now let's get going, I don't want the Tendo's to wait any longer than they have to."

Akane stood panting in the dojo. Since the Saotome's were supposed to show up today, her father had declined to give her a training session saying that he didn't want to have to interrupt it to greet his old friends. This didn't mean that she shouldn't get a work out in. She had just come back from a four mile run and was busy doing a few of her more intense katas'. She looked at the clock hanging over the entrance to the dojo. '4:30,' she thought, 'the Saotome's should be here soon if they're going to be arriving today. I hope.' The prospect of another girl interested in the art excited her, along with the arrival of a new sensei and mother figure. She missed her mother dearly and though Mrs. Saotome could never replace her it would be good to have a female in the house who wasn't her sister.

She began another kata, this one more smooth and gentle; she was getting more nervous as the minutes past. She glanced up at the clock as she finished. "What the…?" Akane exclaimed, "4:32! That kata should have taken me at least five minutes and I felt I was doing it slowly!" 'Maybe I'm more nervous than I thought,' she mused to herself. She was about to begin another kata when she heard voices outside the dojo.

She was walking to the entrance when Kasumi slide the door open enough to peek in. "Akane," Kasumi began, "sorry to interrupt, but the Saotome's have arrived. Father wishes for us to meet them in the main room." "I was just about to come out and see who was here, Kasumi," Akane reassured her eldest sister, smiling. The two girls walked back to the main room of the house where Nabiki, Soun, and two red headed women, one about Akane's age and one closer to Soun's age, and a large panda sat waiting for them.

"Ah, the last of them are here," Soun said jovially, "Akane, Kasumi," he gestured to the appropriate daughter as he spoke, "these are Ranma," pointing to the young girl in Chinese clothing, "Nodoka," the older lady in a blue sun dress, "and Genma Saotome," ending on the panda. "Your training partner was a _panda_!" Akane exclaimed without thinking about what she said. 'Yes and no' the panda's sign said 'there was a bit of an accident at one of the training sites in China. Ranma why don't you tell them'.

"Alright, fine dad," Ranma rolled her eyes and her father. "Mom, dad, and I were visiting and old training site near that Amazon village recently opened up to the outside world." "You mean the one that started sending people out of the village to later come back and bring the village up to date back in the 60's?" Nabiki asked. "Yeah that one," Ranma nodded, "anyway the training grounds went by the name of Jusenkyo or 'cursed springs village'. Don't really know how it's a village as it's just a huge area with a lot of springs in it but, oh well, I wasn't the person who named it." "Ranma, honey," Nodoka chided, "get back to the story." "I'm getting there," Ranma said to her mother, "anyway, dad and I were training on the bamboo poles that stick out of the springs and just as we were getting done dad loses his balance and falls in." 'I miss judged the distance to the pole and didn't land completely on it' Genma, in panda form, explained. "So we were waiting for dad to get out of the pool and instead of dad a rather large panda comes out and lumbers toward us," Ranma continued, "mom was getting a little freaked out at this until the caretaker of the springs calmly got up with a kettle of hot water and dumped it over the panda, and suddenly dad was standing in front of us."

"The springs apparently go by various names, for example 'Pool of Drowned Panda', and whatever drowned in the pool is what whoever falls into the pool turns into when hit with cold water," Nodoka explained, "as it turns out hot water is what counteracts the curse." With that she picked up a kettle from behind her and poured its' contents over the panda's head. The panda immediately turned into a man, probably no older than Soun who was in his late thirties, with glasses, a bandana, and a light green training gi on. "Thank you," Genma said to his wife, "be thankful that the Amazon village near the springs had a young man who had developed a martial arts style involving hidden weapons. Normally when the curse is reversed I am not wearing any clothes, but thanks to him I am able to hide away not only those signs I keep talking with but a few of my gi's so that when I change back I am wearing something."

"Wow," the three Tendo girls said in awe. "Well, now that we've all been properly introduced," Soun said, "we can go back to what needs to get done for the day. Genma, I believe you and I need to talk about teaching at the dojo and how we're going to go about it." The two Masters of Anything Goes stood and walked into an adjoining room to discuss things in private. "Kasumi," Nodoka said, turning toward the eldest Tendo daughter, "is it alright if I make dinner with you tonight to get oriented in your kitchen?" Kasumi smiled and nodded, both women rising to head to the kitchen. Nabiki excused herself saying she had things to do.

Akane turned to Ranma. "Do you have any training clothes ready to go?" she asked, "I haven't finished my workout yet today if you'd like a quick spar before dinner I'd be willing to spar with you." "Ok," Ranma said, perking up. She grabbed some clothes out of her pack and went into the guest room to change, coming out after a few moments, "Ready," she said. Akane led the girl back out to the dojo.

"Did Akane just invite Ranma for a fight?" Nodoka asked Kasumi. "Sounds like it," Kasumi responded stirring whatever was in the pot on the stove. "I hope she's good," Nodoka said in a worrying tone. "Don't worry, Akane's better than any of father's other students. She and Ranma will have a quick spar, get to know each other, and probably hit it off great," Kasumi said casually. "Oh, I'm not worried about that," Nodoka said, "I'm worried that Akane won't be able to compete with Ranma. Tell me, can Akane hold par with her father in a match for five minutes?" "Father's never spared Akane before," Kasumi said, "she hasn't gotten to that level yet." "Well, then," Nodoka said, turning back to cutting up vegetables, "this quick spar will likely turn into a rather intense training session for Akane." "Ranma's that good?" Kasumi asked. "You'd better believe it," Nodoka said, "don't hurry with dinner. We'll let them wash up completely before we get done."

"So why do you have your hair up in a ponytail like that?" Akane asked Ranma as they entered the dojo. "It keeps my hair out of my face and feels natural," Ranma told her, "I had it in a pig-tail once but it bothered me when it would swing around and hit me in the side of the head when I spun around during spars." The two girls stood a few paces apart from each other in the dojo. "Ready?" Akane asked, assuming her fighting stance. "Ready," Ranma confirmed, standing up straight with her hands behind her back, smiling innocently. 'Ok,' Akane thought, 'I guess I'll fight her like I would one of the younger students of dad's.' She aimed a punch at Ranma that was relatively easy to see, to which Ranma jumped into the air to avoid the attack. Blinking, Akane shifted her stance a bit so that she wouldn't convey her moves as openly and set to another attack pattern. Ranma simply sidestepped each blow or effortlessly blocked them. "Come, on Akane," Ranma encouraged, "I know you can hit me, don't try and hold back against an opponent for whom you don't know their skill level."

Akane blanched, and felt her cheeks heat up. Ranma had just quoted one of the many things her father would say to his students. "Never underestimate an opponent" he would say, "if you don't know how good they are you will have found out by the end of the fight regardless of the outcome". She shifted her stance again and gave Ranma everything she had.

Ranma continued to effortlessly evade or block Akane's attacks, though she blocked the punches and kicks more often than she sidestepped them now. 'How is she doing this?' Akane was starting to get mad, 'from what dad told me she hasn't been training any longer than I have, and it's not like that's the only thing she's been doing with her mom along to educate her in other things. Why is she so much better than me?' Finally Akane completely lost her temper. Screaming with rage, she drew a fist back to hit Ranma as hard as she possibly could.

"STOP!"

Akane blinked. She was still in the process of delivering her punch, but her fist never made it past her head. Ranma stood upright with her right hand out, palm up about an inch from Akane's face. "Akane you're quite talented," Ranma began, "but your form lacks any sort of control. Or discipline, to use one of dad's favorite terms to say." Akane stood up, gapping slightly at Ranma. Soun had been getting after her for at least a year and a half to apply herself more and gain some self-discipline, saying that she would advance faster if she did. 'Damn,' Akane thought, 'she's that much better than me just because of _that_? Self-discipline?' "Akane," Ranma began again, "how does your daily life typically go?"

"Well, I usually get up in the morning with just enough time to eat before heading to school. After school I get a workout in, typically I run a few miles before coming back here to perform some katas and practice moves. After dinner I do homework, if I get done with enough time left in the day dad gives me private instruction before going to bed." Akane didn't know why but she felt a little sheepish telling Ranma this. "I see, and judging by how our spar ended I assume you have a pretty quick temper?" Ranma asked. "Yeah," Akane blushed. "It's ok, Akane," Ranma said softly, "I blow up over things all the time. I just get mad at the things that matter."

"Like what?"

"Like when a _boy_ asks me out for the umpteenth and still doesn't get it that I'm not interested," Ranma seethed. Akane grinned at Ranma. "I think we'll make good friends," she said, "I hold boys in a similar light." "Good to know," Ranma smiled back, "but back to the problem with your form. Much of that can be dealt with by gaining some self-discipline. God, I'm starting to sound like my dad." "Mine too," offered Akane. "I guess they're right though," Ranma sighed, "I mean they're both Masters. I can fight dad and hold my own, but I can't beat him. Thankfully he's told me that he can't hold back when sparing with me anymore, so I'm about as good as he is."

"You're almost a Master and your how old?" Akane asked in disbelief. "I'm 16, but I turn 17 in about 2 months," Ranma said, "and yeah, I'm just about a Master, I don't know how much more work it'll take but I'm close." She sighed as she said this. "What's the matter?" Akane asked, laying a hand on her shoulder. "I've devoted my life to martial arts," Ranma said, "yeah, mom taught me other stuff so it isn't the only thing I'm good at, but I've only really had two, maybe three friends in the past ten years. And I mean real friends, too. Not just people you know at school or something." "Oh," Akane said, realizing how lonely Ranma must have been, "I'll have to help you fix that in exchange for you helping me fix my technique." "Really?" Ranma breathed, "oh, thank you." And with that she pulled Akane into a bone crushing hug. "Ran…ma…ca…n't…bre…at..he…" Akane managed to choke out. "Sorry!" Ranma quickly apologized releasing her new friend. "Well, if we're going to be working on improving your technique we'd better get moving. I'm going to perform a kata that you probably haven't seen before slowed down a bit so you can watch me. When I finish we'll perform it together and then you'll be on your own. Keep in mind; it's probably more difficult than any kata you know yet."

Forty-five minutes later, the girls emerged from the dojo and staggered, in Akane's case, to the furo to take a bath. "I think I just used some muscles that hadn't been used in a few months," groaned Akane. "Well, a nice hot bath will feel good then," Ranma replied, "I'm going to enjoy this. I haven't had a hot bath since the Amazon village a few weeks ago. And before that, I hadn't had a hot bath in a little over a year." "That long?" Akane questioned as the girls stripped and put their clothes the laundry bin. "Well, we were camping for most of the ten years. The only source of hot water that we had was heating it water in a pot over a fire and we cooked in that pot so we decided against using it as a bath water source. Mainly we used lakes, ponds, rivers, any form of natural water really."

'Wow,' was all Akane could think as the girls sat back and soaked in the steaming water, 'she's done so many things I wish I could do.' Then a thought hit her. "Ranma, do you think we could go camping during our summer break," she asked. "I don't see why not," Ranma all but groaned, enjoying the hot water immensely. 'Yes,' thought Akane smugly, then another thought occurred to her.

"Ranma, I need to warn you about the boys at school and my sister Nabiki. The boys at school seem to think that if one of them defeats me in combat they get the privilege of dating me; I tend to have to fight my way into the school every day. Nabiki likes to capitalize on this fact an takes pictures of me during workouts, doing sports, sleeping, thankfully she's decent enough not to take pictures in the furo, and sells them to boys at school along with information about what I like to do, where I'll be, or what I'm doing for cash." "Brilliant," Ranma's sarcasm was quite evident, "let me guess. Since I'm new, pretty good looking, and now friends with you I'm probably going to get dragged into this too, aren't I?" "I wouldn't doubt it," Akane said. "I think I know why you get up with so little time left to go in the mornings now," Ranma said, turning her head to look at Akane, "well, it's just something we'll have to deal with. Training katas in the morning before breakfast will help. Shall I get you up in the morning or do you think you can manage?"

"I think I can manage," Akane said. The girls then turned their heads to a sound outside the door. "Girls," Nodoka said, "dinner is ready, you can come join us anytime." "Ok, we'll be down in a bit mom," called Ranma, "we should hurry up. The sooner you eat after a workout, the faster the nutrients from the food reach your muscles."

"Ranma, how did you get so good?" Akane asked, as she got out of the water. "I had a goal to be able to beat dad," Ranma responded, "however, I've changed that goal recently." "What's your goal now?" Akane asked as the girls dried off. Ranma sighed, "It's really far out there, I don't know if it's even possible, but it's been my dream ever since I heard the legend of the so-called 'Worlds Strongest' fighter at that Amazon village."

"The Matriarch of the village was beaten by a male fighter about 35 years ago," Ranma explained as she got dressed in fresh clothes, "at that time the belief that males were inferior to females in the Amazon society was still heavily present, so when the Matriarch came back to the village saying that she had been beaten by this man the news was rather shocking. This was around the time that the village started to open up to the rest of the world by the way." "I see," Akane said as they finished dressing. "Anyway, the Matriarch of the village spared with dad for a while during our stay in the village and the two of them were relatively evenly matched, though dad says that he probably would not have won an actual fight with her. Well this man back in the 60's apparently beat the Matriarch as easily as I beat you earlier. After the match he told her that someone had declared him to be the 'Worlds Strongest' a few years back and nobody had beaten him since."

"So why are you telling me this?" Akane asked as the girls headed for the dining room. "Well," Ranma said nervously, "apparently this guy is still around and still hasn't been beaten to this day. My goal is to find him and take his title from him."

* * *

_Ok, that was fun. Is it me or is it easier to write dialogue? Anywho, to let those of you who are avidly reading this story (riiiight) know, I am a college student, though I am home for the summer, and that implies that I need money. Well as of right now I don't have a job and am in the process of applying for some. This may mean that in a few weeks, I might actually have a life beyond the computer I type this story up on at 3 in the morning (not joking here). This being the case, I may not be able to update quite as quickly as I have been._

_Also, damn, I just doubled the length of the story in one chapter._

_That being said: how'd this chapter go? Still going good? Let me know, please review._


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma, and all that other stuff, ok I think we're good so far. After reading a review before writing this, I decided to take a closer look at the last chapter I had written and I agree with the reviewer. The dialogue is difficult to follow when the story is formated that way. I'd prefer if fanfiction would allow me to double space my work like it is in Word when I type it up, but the website doesn't like to let me do that. I have tried to break the dialogue up as best I can so that it is a little easier to follow. Let me know if the new format is an improvement.

**Warning:** This story is rated T so there will be some 'adult language', as movies put it, in the story. Words 'damn' and 'bastard' have already shown up, though those are relatively light words. If any of you have ever seen or heard of George Carlin's "The Seven Words you can't say on TV", there will be words like that, though I will not be cursing nearly as often as Mr. Carlin does in his comedy routines.

* * *

"Somehow I knew she wouldn't be able to get up in the morning," Ranma said to herself as she carried Akane, dressed in a training gi, down to the dojo early the next morning. The girls had explained to their fathers what they were going to be doing at dinner the night before. Both Masters thought that it was a good idea, Genma because teaching Akane would improve Ranma's skill bringing her closer to 'Master Level', and Soun because Ranma would probably be a better teacher for Akane than anyone else. Since Ranma would be getting up early the next morning, Nodoka took the liberty of introducing her to her new school supplies that the Tendo's had graciously picked up for Ranma, uniform and all.

"Was that your daughter carrying my daughter into the dojo there?" Soun asked Genma as he finished a kata in the lawn outside the dojo.

"Wouldn't doubt it," Genma replied as he began a new kata himself. The old training partners had decided to announce to the students a new time schedule to their students today; saying that since there were now _two_ sensei's the classes could be twice as big at a time. Therefore, students could sign up for a different class time now as classes were bigger.

Inside the dojo Ranma had finally managed to wake Akane, by placing ice packs all over her body. "Fuck, Ranma, did you have to do that?" Akane moaned groggily.

"Well, good morning to you too, Miss Sunshine," Ranma giggled, "looks like I'm not the only bitch out there that'll curse like a guy."

"What time is it?" Akane groaned looking at the clock, "Ranma, its 5:30 in the morning."

"Yeah, and school starts at 7:30, so we have two hours to get some gentle exercise in, wash up, get dressed, eat, and get to school. And since you told me that you have to beat your way in everyday I'm assuming that we want to arrive early enough to fight and still make it to class on time." Akane stared at Ranma, "Do you always think things through this well?" she asked.

"Sometimes," Ranma said, "now let's get to down to business then, shall we?" The girls performed several katas, varying in intensity from smooth and gentle to complex and spirited, before heading to the furo to wash before breakfast. "This 'Worlds Strongest' person," Akane asked Ranma as they dressed in their school uniforms, "have you ever seen him fight?"

"No," Ranma said opening the door to the furo and heading to the dining room for breakfast, "but the Amazons try and keep track of him. Though he figured this out almost immediately and has been making their job difficult. He keeps moving around, doing various odd jobs here and there, and when he goes to tournaments or formally fights somebody he always uses a different alias."

"He doesn't want them to know who he is then, does he," Akane stated as they sat down to eat the breakfast that Ranma's mother had put together. Kasumi had taken the opportunity of Ranma's mother being present to be able to head into work earlier. Ranma had been rather surprised when Kasumi told her that she worked with Ukyo at her restaurant.

"Apparently not," Ranma said wolfing her food down, "hey, where's Nabiki?"

"She decided to head into school a bit earlier than usual," Soun told her.

"And knowing Nabiki," Akane grumbled, "she's probably selling pictures of Ranma and I sparing together, letting the boys know that there's a new girl to vie for."

"How would she have gotten pictures of us?" Ranma asked, "I never sensed her near the dojo last night or this morning."

"Sensed?" Akane asked, incredulously.

"Yes, Akane," Soun explained, "at a certain point in a fighters development they will gain the ability to feel the energy, or battle aura for fighters, in living things."

'Wow,' Akane thought, then blushed, 'just how much of the stuff dad was trying to teach me in the past did I blow off because I was so sure of my ability.'

"Nabiki doesn't seem to have to be anywhere close to the person or object in question to get a picture of it," Akane stated finishing her breakfast, "I don't know how she does it. It's almost like she has hidden camera's set up everywhere."

"Clever," Ranma grumbled, wanting to say a more powerful word as well but with her mother in ear shot thought better of it.

Akane and Ranma walked to school discussing Ranma's schedule. "Looks like you're in my class," Akane said, "perhaps the teachers thought it would be best for you to be with someone you at least knew slightly so you could adjust."

"Damn thoughtful of them," Ranma said. "Oh, Ranma this is a building to remember," Akane pointed to the building on their right, "it's Dr. Tofu's clinic. He treats pretty much all of my injuries. He also happens to be hopelessly in love with Kasumi so don't mention her name around him or he'll turn into a blithering idiot."

"Does Kasumi like him?" Ranma raised an eyebrow at Akane's statement.

"Oh, yeah, Kasumi adores him. He's a martial artist as well, though he doesn't get much time to practice as he's almost constantly treating somebody, namely me, and a really good doctor. Kasumi is just waiting for him to get the courage to tell her."

"So in other words, Dr. Tofu is one of the male gender's better products," Ranma stated.

"You can put it that way, yeah," Akane said, "Great, here's the school. Shit, it's a big crowd today."

"Need help?" Ranma offered, "We don't have to worry about being late, it's still 7:20, even if you took on all of them by yourself I don't think it would take you ten minutes."

"I expect that you don't even have to offer," Akane rolled her eyes, "my guess is that this is your welcoming 'party'. You'd be sucked into this whether you wanted to or not."

"Well, then," Ranma said with a sadistic gleam in her eye, as she popped some joints and rolled her shoulders out, "it would be a shame to keep them waiting."

"It's Akane! And the new girl!"

"Akane, please go out with me!"

"New girl, Ranma, I love you, you're beautiful!"

"She's even more beautiful in person that she is in picture!"

"What did I tell you?" Akane said as the girls started to rush forward to meet the swarm of teenage boys rushing at them, "your welcoming party AND Nabiki has indeed been selling them pictures."

------------------------------------------------

_One and a half minutes later_

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"Well, that was fun," Ranma said casually as the last boy dropped to the ground, groaning in agony, "and you say this happens every day?"

"Yeah, you get used to it after a while," Akane said, stepping over the unconscious body of one of the many boys, "it's still a pain in the ass if you ask me."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I hope there's more of them tomorrow," Ranma said with a sadistic grin. "Be careful what you wish for, Ranma," Akane warned. Just then two objects flew through the air at the girls. Both of them caught the projectiles easily, they were roses.

"Great," Akane groaned, "Kuno."

"Who's this Kuno?" Ranma asked.

"Him," Akane said pointing at the approaching boy carrying a training sword.

"Fair Maidens, thou hast caught the flowers indicating my undying love for thee," the boy cried dramatically, "because of this I shall grant you the ultimate prize: a date with me, Tatewaki Kuno, Captain of the Kendo team…"

"He's the guy who started this thing," Akane explained, not bothering to listen to Kuno's speech, "he declared that nobody would be allowed to date me, and probably now you, unless they could defeat me, and you, in combat. Of course, as you can tell by his long winded speech, he seems to feel that he doesn't have to play by the same rules."

"He's the person who set all this up, eh," Ranma said, looking at Kuno, still going about his speech, describing his many virtues and how grand their date will be, "I'll deal with him, hold this." She handed Akane her school bag and walked toward Kuno.

"Kuno-kun," Ranma said innocently, with an even more innocent look on her face.

'Oh, boy,' Akane thought, 'this will be good. Damn, where's Nabiki when you need her? I want a picture of this.'

"I here that you're the one who started this little contest," Ranma continued. "That's right," Kuno proudly proclaimed, striking a seemingly impressive pose. "Well, I've got a little somethin' for you then," Ranma said smiling happily at him, "close your eyes," she told him as she leaned forward into him.

Kuno was so excited that he closed his eyes and leaned forward all too eagerly. There was a quick blur of motion and Kuno collapsed to the ground covered in bruises, still with a happy expression on his face. "Thinking back on that," Ranma said as she took her bag back from Akane, "that may not have been the smartest thing to do. He's probably going to wake up thinking that I kissed him, and he'll completely overlook the bruises."

"Or if he doesn't he'll just think that you were so eager to kiss him that you wrestled him to the ground and kissing him with aggressive passion," Akane said with a sarcastic air to her fake romantically dreamy voice. "What did you do exactly?" she asked.

"I hit every available vulnerable point on his body," Ranma said, "we'll be working on that after school with you."

"But we'll have to get our homework done first," Akane reminded Ranma as they walked into the school and headed for their homeroom.

"Akane," Ranma sighed, "you need to learn to prioritize. You take an hour and a half every day for a workout _before_ you start your homework. All you have to do is shift your private instruction time to that hour and a half and your work out to just before bed and you'd get the same deal as you had before only with a guaranteed private instruction every day."

"Let me guess," Akane said, "all a part of…" "Self-discipline," Ranma finished, "you're catching on pretty fast. Oh good, we managed to get here with a minute to spare."

The girls entered their classroom and shifted their minds off martial arts, boys-attempting-to-gain-dates, and other related topics, and into the realm of whatever the teacher was going to talk about today.

* * *

_Wow, that took me almost as long to reformat and edit the story after I uploaded it as it took me to write the damn thing. Oh, well that's life._

_So is the different format better? Let me know, please review._


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. Question: do I have to say this in every chapter or am I good by now? It's been a couple days since my last update hasn't it? Well, I've been busy. I don't think that I'm going to be having a job this summer. That's good for you readers because that means that I will have almost nothing better to do than to write stories, but bad for me seeing as I will not be making money for the coming school year. Please learn from my example, up coming college students: apply for jobs well in advance even though you're still off at school and won't be able to come in for a job interview for a long time.

In other news, I'm rather surprised at the amount of work I'm putting into this. Going to the library to check out the appropriate manga for the up coming conflict. Looking up things on the internet so that I get my information right. For example, April 12th, 1998 actually was a Sunday. And schools in Japan meet year round, having various breaks here and there, including a month long break during the summer. I don't know exactly what month during the summer this break is, I assume that it varies by school, I'm thinking about putting Ranma and Akane's break during July. Also, schools in Japan are not free like they are in America (lucky us, huh) but coming from a college students view of school expenses the cost of secondary school in Japan doesn't sound very expensive. Then again I don't know what the average family income is in Japan so don't have anything to compare to. School in Japan also have a much smaller drop out rate than school in America (and we wonder why Japanese students are smarter than we are).

Anyway, I've been rambling here, you're not here to read the crap that I write in the 'author's notes', you're here to read the story. So here it is, finally. Enjoy.

* * *

Several weeks had passed since the Saotome's had come to Nerima and Ranma and Akane were beginning to plan the camping trip that they had decided to go on the first day they met. Akane had read about a forest north of Tokyo that was a good place for campers and the girls decided that it would be a good place to go. The only problem was…

"Ranma, do you have any money?" Akane asked.

"No," Ranma admitted dejectedly, "and the only place I know of that's hiring people to work right now is my moms' dress shop."

Nodoka had opened up a clothing store, _Traditional Dresses: Hand Made_, soon after arriving at the Tendo's and it was surprisingly popular. Even with Kasumi helping her sew when she came home from Ucchan's the two women were having difficulty keeping up with the custom orders.

The men of the family, Genma and Soun, took it upon themselves to help any way they could, holding a competition to see who could run out find the needed fabric for the ladies and run back in the least amount of time, and finding new and increasingly more interesting ways to get simple, mundane household chores done. Mopping the kitchen floor consisted of attaching mop heads to their feet and shuffling around the kitchen while collecting the necessary ingredients and cooking supplies that the ladies would need to cook dinner with. Neither woman trusted the men to cook something that everyone in the families would have to eat. While the Genma and Soun made their own lunches, they were the only one's eating them.

"There's nothing wrong with working there," Ranma clarified as the girls finished their morning routine in the dojo and headed for the furo to clean up before breakfast and school, "I just don't enjoy sewing that much."

"I think I'll help them out," Akane declared as the girls redressed after bathing.

"Well you actually enjoy sewing," Ranma reminded her, "you can do it all you want, just please don't involve me in it." Akane agreed.

Among the many things that Ranma had been training Akane to do in Anything Goes Martial Arts, she was also getting Akane to branch out and learn other things. It had taken all three women, Ranma, Nodoka, and Kasumi, to teach Akane how to cook and she was now able to make things that Genma with his cast iron stomach could eat. Kasumi had pulled Akane over one Sunday afternoon when she had nothing to do and attempted to teach her to sew. While it did not take nearly the effort that it took to teach her to cook, it still took Akane three weeks to be able to push the needle through the cloth and not stick the needle into her finger, drawing blood. Akane eventually turned out to be surprisingly good at sewing.

"Of course you can help, dear," Nodoka assured Akane at breakfast, "whatever made you think we wouldn't let you?"

"Well, I, uh…" Akane blushed, while putting on the façade of confidence; she was very insecure about herself when it came to things she was rather new to. She had hoped that Ranma's mother would let her help, but was about as certain that Nodoka would turn her down saying that she didn't want to ruin a costumers dress.

"Don't worry, Akane," Kasumi reassured her, "you're just fine at sewing. The only thing I want to know is how you plan to get to school on time today. You do only have eleven minutes to get there."

"WHAT?!" both Ranma and Akane screamed at the top of their lungs.

"We don't have time for the usual antics this morning!" Ranma cried, "Dad! We need Mr. Panda as a battering ram!" She and Akane grabbed their school gear and sprinted out the door and down the street, only to find themselves suddenly on the back of a giant panda, lumbering down the path to the school moving at a faster pace than they could run.

"I didn't know dad could move this fast as a panda," Ranma said as she hung on as hard as she could.

"Well it's a good thing he can," Akane stated, clinging to Ranma for dear life, "look there's the school. Wow, we're here in record time!"

"Ok dad," Ranma said, "we need you to beat the shit out of the boys that will be coming to fight us as soon as we're in eyeshot of the school. Make sure you take extra time beating a guy named Tatewaki Kuno. You shouldn't have any problems finding him: he always carries around a training katana, he's far more arrogant than any of the other boys, and he speaks overly chivalrously."

Genma, a.k.a. Mr. Panda, grunted in acknowledgement and the girls quickly jumped off his back as the boys from the school began running toward them.

"Akane! Ranma! I love…What the hell?"

"Ranma, please go…AAAAGHH!!!!"

"Akan-UMPPH!"

The boys, making their usual cries, attempting to either profess their love or ask one, or both, of the girls out, suddenly stopped and began the fastest retreat ever recorded in history as Mr. Panda charged them down, knocking them out of the way, trampling a few of the slower one, and causing general panic as he cleared the path for the girls running in quickly behind him.

"Time?" asked Ranma.

"We have three minutes," answered Akane.

"Good, let's see what happens to Kuno," Ranma said as she turned around. A body suddenly flew past and slammed into the walled fence surrounding the school courtyard. Looking down the girls saw that it was Kuno, blissfully unconscious.

"I don't think he knew what hit him," Akane said.

"Guess so," Ranma said, "Thanks, Mr. Panda!" she called after the retreating back of her father.

'You're welcome' the sign Mr. Panda raised said as he ambled back to the Tendo's.

"Hey Akane," Ranma said later as the two ate lunch outside with Akane's, and now Ranma's, friends, "have you ever noticed that there are hardly any senior boys amongst the boys trying to get a date with us?"

"I have," Akane replied, "haven't been able to find out why though."

"I can help you with that," the girl sitting to the right of Ranma, Misaki, "my sister date's a senior. Apparently most of them, that don't already have a girlfriend, are smart enough to not try and fight you."

"And it isn't because they know they can't beat you," Ayaka, the girl to Akane's left, said, "they've figured out that you have to woo a girl instead of flattering her, or 'defeating her in combat', or something else along those lines. Many of them seem to be taking bets on how long it will take you to beat all the guys each morning."

"How do you know?" Akane asked staring at her friend.

"I date a senior, remember," Ayaka said smiling, "Jun said that everyone was quite surprised when the panda came today. Many of them are taking bets on how _small_ tomorrow's crowd will be after today's morning fiasco."

"That explains a bit," Ranma said as she took a bite out of her sandwich.

As the girls talked, another girl came limping up to them. "Excuse me," she said, "but are you Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo?"

"Yeah," the two girls replied in unison.

"I'm from the rhythmic gymnastics club," the girl explained as she sat down, "it seems that we were ambushed and the best gymnasts were incapacitated a few days ago. We have an idea of who did it; there is an upcoming match between the champions of this school and St. Bacchus School for Girls this weekend and while most of the girls there are exceptionally good all of them tend to not take the chance of losing and handicap their opponents before the match happens."

"Well, why are you coming to us?" Ranma asked, "Go have the club coach tell officials about it and have them do something."

"Our coach would, but as it so happens it wouldn't do any good," the girl explained, "the parents of the girls that go there are rich enough that they could pay off any official that questioned the team. So all we can do is find a replacement so that we can beat them."

"Again," Akane said, this time, "why are you asking us?"

"Because the upcoming match happens to be Martial Rhythmic Gymnastics," the girl said, "basically it's fighting using the equipment of a rhythmic gymnast. There is only one main rule that ever seems to get followed: no bare-handed attacks."

"I see," Ranma said, "when did you say this match was?"

"This Saturday," the girl said, "I'm sorry we can't give you any more time, but…"

"Don't worry," Ranma said gently, "I think I know a person who could get one of us ready for the match in no time at all. Is there a pay phone nearby?" she asked to no one in particular.

"Yeah, about a block down that way," Misaki answered, pointing off in the right direction.

"Thanks," Ranma said rushing off.

I'll have the proper equipment dropped off at your house after school," the girl from the gymnastics team said, getting up and limping away, presumably to tell the rest of the team.

"I wonder who Ranma's calling," Ayaka said.

"Maybe she's one of her friends from before she came here," Akane said, "she said she had about three, and one of them is Ukyo."

"Ranma knows Ukyo?" Misaki asked, "I didn't know that. I love her restaurant." The girls saw Ranma running back from the pay phone.

"Ok," Ranma said as she sat back down, "Ryoga said that he'd be here by the time school let out, though I'm not sure how he's going to manage that since he lives over one hundred miles away from here."

"Yeah, that will be…wait," Akane said turning to look at Ranma, "you said your friend was a _boy_?"

"He is," Ranma said, a little sheepishly, "and I think he had a crush on me when I knew him too. But he seems to be over that, seeing how he said that his girlfriend was coming with him."

"I'm more shocked about the fact that you said that he would be the one to teach you how to do Rhythmic Gymnastics by the end of the week," Misaki stated.

"Surprising isn't it," Ranma smiled, "last I knew he was pretty good at it, and that was back when we were twelve."

"This is going to be interesting," Akane mumbled to herself.

When Ranma and Akane got home after school they were greeted by a boy wearing a yellow bandana around his head and a girl sitting on top of a rather large pig.

"Ranma," the boy said, "good to see you again after four years."

"Hey, Ryoga!" Ranma said happily, walking up and giving him a quick hug, "so you still good at that rhythmic gymnastics?"

"If I have to admit it, yes," Ryoga smiled, "some girls came past a few minutes ago and dropped off the tools you two will be using."

"Why are we both learning?" Akane asked curiously.

"From the sounds of it, the girls from St. Bacchus will probably try and take out whoever the replacement is," the girl on the pigs back said, "so we figured that if there were two 'aces in the hole' if they got one there would still be the other. By the way, my name is Akari."

"Nice to meet you," both Akane and Ranma said.

"Well, everyone knows everybody now," Ryoga stated, "we can get down to business." He led the girls into the dojo where a large number of ribbons, clubs, balls, and hoops now were. "Alright," Ryoga began, "as you know Martial Rhythmic Gymnastics is a type of fighting using the tools of Rhythmic Gymnastics. There is pretty much only one rule that you have to worry about most of the time and that is that bare-handed attacks are forbidden. Other than that you can use just about anything, or so it seems."

"Why do you say that?" Akane asked.

"I've seen a match where gymnasts disguised swords as part of their equipment," Ryoga explained, "and got away with it."

"So look out for 'low blows'," Ryoga advised, "in the mean time, we need to have you two able to fight like this." He picked up a ribbon, twirled it around, snagged one of the practice dummies in the dojo, and hurled it into the opposing wall. "That is probably the most difficult part of the entire concept," he said, "the hoops, clubs, and balls are relatively self-explanatory I assume."

"Yeah," Ranma nodded dumbly.

About an hour later, the four teenagers sat out on the deck outside the dojo. Akari was telling the girls how she and Ryoga had met.

"So I live at a dojo where we train Sumo Pigs," she explains, "so I'm around pigs a lot. Needless to say I like them. Well, one rainy day I find this little black piglet with a yellow bandana around its neck shivering outside the dojo. I took pity on it and brought it inside, deciding to give it a warm bath. Well it is fighting to get away like none other, but I since I'm used to handling pigs over ten times its size it still wasn't that hard to get it to the bath and into the hot water. That's when a really big surprise came."

"What happened?" Akane asked.

"I came out of the water," Ryoga answered, "See, about six months after you left Ranma; my family went camping in China. Coincidentally we camped out near those cursed springs, Jusenkyo I believe they are called. I was unfortunate enough to be walking by the edge of a cliff looking over them and tripped, falling into one of the springs below. Let that be a lesson to you: always look where you're walking at least part of the time. Anyway, the spring I fell into was 'Spring of Drowned Piglet'. As embarrassing as that was, it turned out pretty good in the end."

"Coming back to my part of the story," Akari started again, "he comes out of the water, blushing so badly I wouldn't doubt it if all the blood in his body was in his face. And all I can think of is 'he looks cute when he blushes'. Never mind the fact that I just put in a small black piglet and a boy I had never seen before just comes out of nowhere and the piglet is gone. I don't think we need to go into the intimate details of explanations, first dates, and beyond do we 'P-Chan'?"

Before Ryoga could answer Kasumi came out of the house announcing dinner.

Ranma turned over in her sleep. She was getting a little tired of sleeping in the same room as her parents. Not that they did anything while she was in there, but she was sixteen for crying out loud soon to be seventeen! She should have her own room. Ranma groaned and put her pillow over her head as another yell came from Akane's room.

'Wait, Akane is a heavy sleeper,' Ranma thought, 'why is yelling coming from her room?' Then it clicked.

"Shit," she said quietly as she got up and hurried upstairs, "it's been what? Twelve hours since we agreed to substitute for the club teams' member and someone from St. Bacchus is already trying to sabotage us." Sure enough a girl dressed in a leotard, wielding a mallet was in Akane's room. Upon Ranma entering the girl swung the mallet her. Ranma countered by thrusting her hand out like a spear, splitting the wooden mallet down the middle.

The intruder blinked, and then said, "It appears that my mission is compromised and I must retreat. But victory shall go to Kodachi, the Black Rose, and St. Bacchus School for Girls anyway." With that, the girl vanished in a flurry of black rose petals.

"What was that all about?" Ranma asked groggily.

"I'm not sure," Akane responded equally sleepy, "it seems that they don't like to fight very fairly at St. Bacchus's though."

"Yeah," Ranma yawned, "you know, if I wasn't so tired, I would have sworn that speech pattern was awfully familiar."

"Same here," mumbled Akane, "g'night Ranma." She turned around and crawled back into her bed.

"G'night Akane," slurred Ranma, turning around and heading back downstairs to the guestroom.

* * *

_Hey, I managed to get another character into this shindig. By the way, look up that word 'shindig', you might laugh._

_Well, how am doing? Still going good? Let me know, please review._


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I believe I have gotten the message across that I don't own Ranma by now, but we shall say it anyway: I don't own Ranma.

Well, it seems that the only complaints that I'm getting in my reviews are dealing with the presentation of my story. I have been working on that, Fanfiction has a rather unique style needed for the presentation of stories.

It took me all day yesterday to write this, instead of about three maybe four hours. I started around ten or so in the morning and then finished around three AM last night. It wasn't the only thing I did yesterday, I kept having to get up and do things, and I had to go running at one point because I had far to much energy to sit and concentrate on my work. Not only that, I have a rather interesting case when it comes to 'writers block'. Instead of not being able to think of anything, I have way to many idea's floating around in my head and I have to sift through them in order to find what I want to write.

I decided to wait to upload chapter 4 since chapter 5 is simply just a continuation of the same conflict. Originally they were going to be one chapter but I decided that that would have been long winded and I didn't want to make anyone sit and read a single chapter that was almost as long as the existing story.

So, here it is. Enjoy.

* * *

"Well, what'da know," Akane said as she elbowed a guy in the gut, "Ayaka's boyfriend was right about there going to be less guys trying to win a date with us in the morning after yesterday's incident."

"You're right," Ranma said as she bicycle kicked two boys, one standing in front of her and the other right behind her, "we should have brought dad in to help us weeks ago."

"You were having too much fun with this in the beginning, Ranma," Akane reminded her as she stepped out of the way of two charging muscle-heads, who crashed into each other head on, knocking themselves out.

"True," Ranma said, straightening her skirt.

"Fair maidens, it is I, Tatewaki Kuno! I have come to rid you of these knaves! All you need do is…" Kuno stopped his speech as his face turned bright purple, and tightened with the strain of trying to not show how much pain he was in.

Ranma lowered her foot from his crotch, "And I should have thought of that a long time ago too," she added, "shuts him up quite nicely."

"Ranma hold on a sec," Akane said, "Kuno, do you have a sister?"

"Yes, Fair Akane," Kuno grunted out, as he held himself, "she goes to St. Bacchus across town. Kodachi would make a good sister-in-la…"

"Thank you," Akane said sweetly as she bashed him over the head with her school bag causing him to fall to the ground in blissful unconsciousness, ending the morning ritual. "I realized where I recognized the speech pattern from last night," she explained as she and Ranma walked up to their classroom, "it sounded an awful lot like Kuno's overly chivalrous talk. Come to think of it, the attempted sabotage is an awful lot like Kuno's antics too: believing themselves to be above the rules."

"Hmmm," Ranma said thoughtfully, "taking that into account, I think whoever fights this Kodachi should expect just about any sort of 'low blow', as Ryoga put it, imaginable."

"Let's not forget what we've been planning," Akane said as they took their seats, "I have a source of money to help pay for the camping trip how are you doing? Found anything yet?"

"Dad said he and your father didn't need help in the dojo, not that I would be there during the class times anyway," Ranma replied, "but he told me that another friend of mine from the Amazon village is coming here to set up a Ramen Shop. I might be able to wait tables there."

"Fun," Akane commented as the teacher walked in.

_------------------------_

_A few days later…_

_------------------------_

"Alright," Ryoga said, "the match is tomorrow. So we need to determine who's going to represent your school." Both Akane and Ranma stood in the middle of the dojo in their leotards, a white one and a black one respectively.

"I guess we have to fight to decide who's best suited for the match," Ranma said, twirling her ribbon.

"Suppose you're right," Akane said picking up a hoop with her foot and spinning two clubs in her hands.

-----------------------------

"What's all that noise coming from the dojo?" Kasumi asked.

"Your sister and Ranma are determining who will represent the school in the Rhythmic Gymnastics match tomorrow," Genma said as he and Soun played a game of Go, they had been playing the same game for the past two days with neither one able to out maneuver his opponent.

"You should see them in those leotards," Nabiki smirked, "tomorrow's going to especially productive for me."

"I'd be careful if I were you, Nabiki," Genma said, "while it seems that she has been too preoccupied to find a suitable way to get back at you, Ranma likes to get even with people. I'd be careful not to piss her off too much."

"What could she do to a professional blackmailer like me?" Nabiki asked, "I doubt she could think of something to make me even sweat."

"Don't be so sure of yourself," Soun chided, "and when you say 'professional blackmailer' think again. What you do is a hobby; there are people out there in the world who are paid to find every dirty little secret about someone so that the person paying them can blackmail them. Your antics are child's play to them."

"Whatever, dad," Nabiki said, not caring.

-----------------------------

"Well, then," Ryoga mused after Ranma and Akane were done, "Ranma is the better fighter, as expected, but that is because she has a bit more experience in actual hand-to-hand combat."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Akane questioned.

Ranma and Ryoga grinned at her.

"Our original intent was to have you be the person who faced Kodachi," Ranma explained, still grinning, "The only reason why I was trained was so that if the St. Bacchus girls tried to incapacitate you there would be somebody else to step up whom they couldn't handle."

"So you're saying that I'm going to be going up against Kodachi," Akane said a little weakly.

"Yes," Ryoga told her, "the best way to get better is to actually face someone in combat. Not just a spar, like you two just did here, but actually fighting. Considering how Kodachi has acted, sabotaging the club team and then attempting to do the same with you, I don't think it will be anything less than an all-out fight."

"Plus," Ranma said, "even though you no longer need me to drag you out of bed each morning to do exercises, your control over your temper is still quite lacking. Taking into account the 'low blows' that are expected in the match, this will be good training for how to control your temper."

"Is everything you do related to training in some way?" Akane asked.

"Akane," Ranma said, putting an arm over her shoulder and leading her to the furo to wash up, "we practice Anything Goes Martial Arts. Anything and everything we do can be considered training."

-----------------------

The morning routine for Akane was very jittery: only able to do very simple katas, hands shaking so badly during breakfast more food fell back to her plate than went in her mouth with each bite; needless to say she was nervous. Ranma, recognizing this, was all too happy to take on _all_ the boys before school that morning. Throughout the day, she, Misaki, and Ayaka, tried to boost Akane's confidence. It helped, but only a little.

The match was scheduled to take place an hour after school let out, and school let out all too soon for Akane. She, Ranma, and Ryoga now sat in the locker room before the match, Ryoga having gotten in by disguising himself as 'P-Chan' and having Ranma carry his clothes in for him to change back into.

"Relax," Ranma told Akane gently, "I was nervous when I went into my first match too."

"But that was years ago," moaned Akane, "you probably had your first real fight when you were ten, or twelve, or some age where you're almost too young to be doing something like this." Akane was all but hyperventilating.

"Actually, you're wrong," Ranma said looking into Akane's eyes, "my first real match was about four months before mom, dad, and I came here. It was a traditional Amazonian Ranking Tournament, honoring the old ways where the best female warriors in the village would face off against each other on a log suspended in the air. Today, it's nothing more than a ceremony, and a piece of entertainment. Even though I was a visitor, I was asked to compete, partially because I was exceptionally good, and partially because I was being trained by the Matriarch of the Village at the time. I was so scared I don't know how I managed to stay on the log long enough to win my first match. However, as the tournament progressed and I realized how well I was doing, I began to feel more confident and less scared. It's perfectly normal to feel nervous or even scared before a fight."

"She's right you know," Ryoga said, "my grandfather is one of the few veterans from WWII. Many of the soldiers of that time felt that surrender was dishonorable and would rather commit suicide than surrender. It was also the belief that dying for the Emperor was the highest honor imaginable, so you would think that the soldiers of our country would almost feel excited for a coming battle. It was the complete opposite. Granddad says there wasn't a single time where he didn't feel scared before going into battle. When the Americans started to gain the upper hand in the war it got worse. There was the constant fear that the island you were on was going to be the next one to be invaded."

"Hey, guys," Ranma said, breaking the mood, "did you notice those black roses sitting over there when we came in here." Akane and Ryoga looked over at the table in the locker room, sure enough, a bouquet of black roses lay on there. " 'Good luck. From the Black Rose.' " Ranma read the tag attached to the flowers, "why would an a fighter send flowers to their opponent?"

Just then Akari's large sumo pig waddled into the locker room, sniffed one of the flowers, at the rose petals, and promptly tipped over fast asleep. "Huh, sleeping potion," Ranma stated, "who knew."

"Is there _anything_ that girl won't resort to in order to insure that she wins?" Akane seethed, "bring the gear Ranma." With that she stormed out of the locker room, presumably heading for the arena where the match was to be held.

"I know that this is supposed to be helping Akane control her temper," Ryoga started, "but I'm pretty glad she has it right now." He bent down, hoisted the pig onto his shoulder and shuffled out of the locker room.

"If anything that was an example to Akane of how anger can motivate someone if used properly," Ranma said to herself as she gathered Akane's equipment, "hey, I should have thought of that in the first place!"

----------------------------------

"Alright, Ladies and Gentlemen!" the referee cried into the microphone in the ring, "Today's match is a Martial Rhythmic Gymnastics fight between the champions of Furinkan High School and St. Bacchus School for Girls!" There was a pause for cheering. "In this corner, the St. Bacchus Champion, Kodachiiiii Kuuuunno!!"

There was a roar of applause as Kodachi stepped out wearing a black leotard and gymnastics slippers, holding a black rose in her teeth.

"And in this corner, the Furinkan Champion, Akanneeee Tennnndooo!!!" A similar roar of applause hail Akane as she stepped forward in her white leotard. There were also some yells that sounded an awful lot like "Beat that cowardly bitch's ass" coming from the rhythmic gymnastics club members.

"Champions! Step forward and shake hands!" the referee commanded. Akane and Kodachi stepped forward, Akane offering her right hand, Kodachi offering her left.

"Kodachi, it's courtesy to shake with your right hand," Akane quietly reminded her opponent.

"Oh, how silly of me!" Kodachi blushed quickly switching hands, shaking Akane's.

"You do know that it doesn't matter what hand you shake with?" Ranma asked her as she came back to her corner.

"Yeah, I know," Akane said, "however, if you had been able to take a quick close look at her left hand you would have seen the tacks she had hidden between her fingers."

"Sneaky bitch," Ranma commented, "good observation."

"Thanks," Akane responded as she picked up her ribbon.

"The rules of the match!" the ref continued, "No time-limit! No bare-handed attacks! First fighter to go down and stay down or exit the ring completely is declared the loser! May the best girl win! FIGHT!"

Akane immediately took an offensive strategy, twirling her ribbon over her head and then snapping it down like a whip.

"Ha, pathetic!" Kodachi cried twirling her own ribbon in the air, blocking Akane's attack, then bounding gracefully toward Akane swinging her ribbon at her.

'Whoa,' Akane thought as she dodged Kodachi's attacks, 'that sounds like a rod as she swings that thing though the air.'

"Akane, remember: if it isn't a bare-handed blow it's probably considered a legal attack!" Ranma reminded her. '

Yeah, great,' Akane thought angrily, 'what other shit am I going to have to deal with during this fight.' She and Kodachi were literally "sword fighting" with their clubs. Suddenly, one of Kodachi's clubs seemed to gain spikes.

'What the…!' Akane thought, as she jumped out of the way, she looked to the ref, who said nothing, and then back at the club. It had no spikes. 'Funny, I could have sworn that there were… that dirty bitch!' Akane thought as she angrily whipped her ribbon at Kodachi, who easily evaded the attack, 'I bet she has retractable spikes in that thing!'

The fight continued, with Kodachi clearly having the advantage. Both she and Akane were good, but Kodachi was ever calm, fighting as if she knew that she was going to win. Akane on the other had was getting angrier and angrier by the moment.

Akane kicks at Kodachi with a hoop. Kodachi blocks with the rod hidden in her ribbon.

Akane attacks Kodachi with her clubs. Kodachi retaliates with her spiked clubs.

Kodachi attacks Akane with what seems to be around twenty clubs. Akane throws a ball at Kodachi causing her to drop the clubs. Turns out there really were twenty.

Kodachi snags the officials bell with her ribbon and smacks Akane over the head with it.

Akane tries a similar tactic with the officials table. Kodachi blocks this by snagging her own brother from the audience. Kuno hacks through the table with his sword before getting tossed back into the audience.

--------------------

"I hope you two knew what you were doing when you had Akane do this," Akari nervously said to Ryoga. Both were sitting up in the bleachers watching the fight.

"How's our big guy doing?" Ryoga asked, referring to Akari's pig.

"He's awake now," she said, "but don't change the subject. You realize that if she loses more is at stake than her high schools honor or whatever? She'll probably be devastated, and you and Ranma will probably not say anything more than 'well, what could you have done better?' That's not going to help her with her anger issues you know."

"Ranma has more tact than that, Akari," Ryoga said, "I used to have a crush on her remember. She was actually quite graceful when she refused to go out with me back then and she was only about twelve or so."

"Yeah, well…" Akari stuttered, trying to come up with something to fire back at her boyfriend. How could he be so calm right now?! "How is this supposed to help train her to manage her temper, anyway?" she eventually asked.

"That was Ranma's idea," Ryoga replied, "I have no idea what she's planning when it comes to that." They winced as Akane got thrown out of the ring, thankfully she was able to snag one of the rafters with her ribbon and swung back in without touching anything outside of it.

"I will say this though," Ryoga said, "the length of this match is definitely going to hinge on how soon Akane gains control of her temper."

-------------------------------

Akane was mad. No, that was an understatement. Akane was FURIOUS! She spent an entire week learning how to fight like this so that she could avenge the girls that got cheated out of competing. Her opponent seemed to have absolutely no concept of what a fair fight at all. AND her opponent seemed to think that there was no way that she could possible lose!

'Damn her,' Akane thought as she grabbed her hoop to throw at Kodachi as hard as she could, 'damn that fucking bit-'

"_**STOP!"**_

_**Akane blinked. She was still in the process of delivering her punch, but her fist never made it past her head. Ranma stood upright with her right hand out, palm up about an inch from Akane's face. "Akane you're quite talented," Ranma began, "but your form lacks any sort of control. Or discipline, to use one of dad's favorite terms to say."**_

Akane blinked for a second at the memory that arose out of nowhere, before rolling out of the way of Kodachi's hoop, which seemed to be a razor blade as well. Somehow that didn't surprise Akane very much.

'What did Ranma mean when she said that?' Akane wondered, deflecting her opponents' club attacks with her hoop, 'wait, when people get angry their movements get more punctuated. My movements when I fight would be easy as hell to read when I'm angry. Meaning I get sloppier and sloppier.'

She kicked her ball at Kodachi's head, feeling smug when it made contact with her face. 'For some reason I'm oddly calm right now,' she noted to herself, 'and this is getting easier.'

She snagged Kodachi's wrist and swung her around over her head before trying to throw her from the ring, only to find that the ribbon had managed to tightly knot itself around her wrist and Kodachi only fell back into the center of the ring, slamming into the mat.

'That didn't work,' Akane thought, 'how can I end this? And I just lost a weapon, or at least part of one.' Her eyes suddenly scanned the crowd. She could see the club team cheering for her exuberantly. Her friends, Misaki and Ayaka, watching the fight nervously, probably hoping that she didn't hurt herself. There was Ryoga and Akari, sitting next to her Sumo Pig….

Pig.

Akane grinned evilly as a new idea came to her head. She ran toward Kodachi, who was just getting up, ran behind her and twirled the ribbon around her other wrist. Whipping Kodachi into the air, Akane managed to twist the ribbon around both her opponents' feet and back around the first wrist. Kicking Kodachi's feet out from under her using her hoop, she looped the ribbon through the larger loop around Kodachi's wrists and ankles. Twirling her ribbon, Akane slowly pulled the larger loop tighter and tighter…

---------------------------------------

The Rhythmic Gymnastics Club was holding a party at Ucchan's celebrating Akane's victory. Akari, Ryoga, Misaki, Ayaka, Akane, and Ranma all sat together at a table discussing the match. Akari couldn't stop laughing.

"So you looked up at us in the crowd, thought 'Pig', and was suddenly inspired to Hog Tie your opponent?" Akari cried, literally, tears were pouring down her cheeks she was laughing so hard.

"Pretty much, yeah," Akane said, still feeling smug from the look on Kodachi's face when Akane was declared the winner, "You should have seen her face as I lowered her to the floor outside the ring. She was screaming about how this was a low and debase move, and how I was cheating. To which I said 'The rules clearly state bare-handed attacks are forbidden. And since I managed to do this without physically touching you, according to the rules this is perfectly legal.' I can still see her fuming on the floor as her second tried to untie her!"

"I was at the match too," Ukyo said as she walked up with their food, "want to know what I noticed?"

"Sure," Akane said, happily munching on her food.

"You were getting angrier and angrier up till it seemed like you were going too exploded then you literally just stopped. And then you started fighting better. What happened?"

"I remembered my first spar with Ranma," Akane answered.

"Huh," Ranma said, looking up from her food, "whatd'ya mean?"

"Remember when I got so mad that I was screaming at you?" Akane asked Ranma, who nodded, "well that memory suddenly popped into my head. Not only did it seem to calm me down, but it got me thinking about my form and I realized that as I got angry I just got sloppy. So what was the use of me getting angry? It just gave my opponent an advantage over me."

"And to think that ten minutes before the match started you were to scared to leave the locker room," Ayaka laughed. Everyone laughed at that. Even Akane.

--------------------------

"Hey, Ranma," Akane said as the girls soaked in the furo later that night, "that Amazonian Ranking Tournament, how did you do in it?"

Ranma grinned at Akane. "I was declared the new Champion after a thirty minute fight in the championship match with the former Champion," she said, "I was so tired by the end that I barely remember the Matriarch declaring me the winner before I passed out on top of the log. The next thing I remember is waking up in a soft bed with Shampoo, the girl I had just beat, looking down on me asking if I was ready to go to my victory feast."

"So the first time you had an actual fight, you won a tournament full of fighters who had probably competed in it several times before?" Akane asked for clarification.

"Yeah," Ranma said, "There were about 60 women total competing in the tournament. And this tournament wasn't like a tournament that you're used to. I can't remember what the Amazons referred to it as but a name I heard an American tourist in the audience refer to the style as was 'Round Robin'. I had to fight 59 women in order to be declared the Champion."

"Shit," Akane breathed, "no wonder you're so good."

"You'll get up there in time," Ranma reassured Akane, "I wouldn't have won if dad hadn't taught me so well, or the Matriarch of the village hadn't taken me under her wing for a couple weeks prior to the tournament."

"But still, fighting 59 women in the same day," Akane said, obviously impressed, "I think I know why you enjoyed beating the shit out of the boys before school so much now."

Ranma just smiled.

* * *

_I read through what I had previously written before I wrote this, and was amazed at the number of typo's I had made. I'm thankful that the format that is presentable on this website is such that you have to read through your work again when you upload it so you can find anything that you might have missed when writing and editing before hand._

_Ok, many of you are probably wondering why Ranma is the 'main person' in the story because Akane was the one who faught Kodachi. Well the first part of the story is about Ranma teaching Akane to branch out, become more disciplined, and be a better fighter. What's coming up in the next few chapters is where Ranma is going to get focused on a bit more and we get to her training to realize her dream of facing the 'World's Strongest'._

_I hope you enjoyed the changesthat I have made to the story of Ranma 1/2 so far. Now, I believe I will be exiting from the original story line almost entirely and moving on to my own plot._

_Let me know how I'm doing, please review._


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma.

Ok, it's been a while since I last updated, I've had things to do. I am also writing the part of the story where we get into the whole deal with the 'Worlds Strongest' dude/person and it is my own storyline not just something I'm rewriting. It takes a little longer. In anycase I am introducing one of my characters in this chapter, hope you like him.

One of my reviewers asked me if I was going to include Herb, Ryu Kumon, and Saffron in this. I think I have found was to incorparate the first two into the plot and I may referrance the existance of Saffron if it fits into the story. My reasoning for not having Saffron is that the conflict that he is in is not an issue seeing as of the original people cursed by the springs I only have three that are still cursed only two of which shall be in the main part of the story. I hope the way I have found to fit Herb and Ryu in is satisfactory though how they fit in is not defined in this chapter. In any case I would like to thank the reviewer for getting me thinking about how I might use those characters.

Without further adou, here's the story: Enjoy.

* * *

Ranma smirked as she wiped off one of the tables in the Cat Café where she waited tables. It was after hours and the usual sounds of her friend Shampoo rejecting her, Shampoo's, childhood friend turned suitor, Mousse, as he tried in various ways to convince her to go on a date with him could be heard from the kitchen. If she knew the routine correctly, and she did, then Mousse would be leaving the kitchens via Amazon Airways in 3….2….1…. she ducked as Mousse flew over her head and landed in the cushioned chair that she had set up earlier in anticipation of the daily ritual. Not that this would deter Mousse at all, he would be trying very hard again the next day, and the day after that, and so on. Ranma begrudgingly gave him points for the sheer effort he was putting in and did it seemed like it was beginning to pay off: Shampoo only through him out of the kitchens now. She used to throw him completely out of the diner.

About a week after Akane's match with Kodachi, Cologne, the Matriarch of the Amazon village and Ranma's old sensei, came to Nerima with her great-granddaughter, Shampoo, and Shampoo's near-blind suitor, Mousse, to open a Ramen shop. The main point of the move was to expose Shampoo to the world outside of the village which she had never strayed far from until now. Shampoo knew enough Japanese to barely get by, which was why Mousse had been brought along in the first place since he spoke the best Japanese in the village, even better than Cologne.

Cologne had been all too eager to hire Ranma as a waitress, probably hoping that she would keep Shampoo and Mousse in line. Now Ranma waited tables at the Cat Café when she wasn't at school or teaching Akane new techniques. There wasn't a whole lot that Akane didn't know of the School of Anything Goes, she just had never practiced it enough to be as good as Ranma or their fathers. Now with both Akane and Ranma making money, the camping trip seemed to be almost within reach.

Ranma was beginning to put chairs on top of the tables so Mousse could mop the floor when the door opened. She turned to see a young man, no older than, oh say, twenty, walk in. He had medium length unruly brown hair, and he wore all black. Black trench coat, black jeans, black boots, black shirt, black fingerless gloves; was this guy one of those 'Goths', she wondered. In any case, she had to turn him away as they were closing and no longer serving customers.

"I'm sorry," she began, as he walked up to her, "but we are in the process of closing for the day. If you want some Ramen you will have to wait until tomorrow to get some. We open at 8 AM." Shampoo and Mousse did not go to school like Ranma did, so the Cat Café always had a waiter or waitress.

"That's quite alright," the young man said, in a low baritone voice, "but I'm not here for the noodles, you see. I would like to speak with the proprietor about something of relative importance. If it is an inconvenience to talk now I can come back later."

Ranma's heart thudded in her chest. 'Oh, God,' she thought, 'what's going on?' She quickly gathered her scattered wits and called for Cologne.

"What is it, child?" the old matriarch called from the store room where she was taking inventory, "Is someone here?"

"Yes, sensei," Ranma yelled, "The young man says it's 'relatively important' too."

"Well, I can spare a few moments," Cologne said as she hobbled out to the two of them. Age was beginning to catch up with her and while she was still a formidable fighter, Genma had once said not too long ago that he probably could not beat her in an outright fight, Cologne was beginning to deteriorate.

"So," the matriarch said, sitting in one of the chairs still on the floor, clutching her long cane, "what is this 'relatively important' issue that you have come calling on me for?"

"Well, it's only 'relatively important' to me," the strange young man began, sitting down in a chair opposite Cologne, "to one of my companions it is of the utmost importance. Miss, why don't you sit down." His last statement was directed at Ranma.

"Actually," Cologne said, "there are still things that must be done before close and…"

"What?" the young man cut her off, "the only two chairs that aren't up on the tables are the ones that we are sitting in so the only thing that needs to be done out here is mop the floor which that young man is doing," he pointed to Mousse. "Also," he continued, "one tends to clean the kitchens before the restaurant floor so the kitchens are clean, and you came from taking inventory which I am going to assume that only you are allowed to do," he said speaking to Cologne, "with this in mind there isn't much else for Miss Saotome to do except pull up a chair and listen in as we talk."

"I guess so," Cologne said weakly, "So then what is it that…"

"Hold on!" Ranma said, the young man's words suddenly registering in her mind, "how do you know my name? We just met and I don't even know your name!"

"Really?" the young man said mildly, "well, we can't have that now can we? In any case my name is Kyle Moor, I'm twenty years old, and as you might have picked up from the way I appear and my accent I am American. As for how I know your name, Ranma, my companions and I have been looking for an artifact for some time now and our journey happened to lead us through the Amazon village that Cologne is the Matriarch for. I heard about your exploits, quite impressive might I add, and therefore know who you are."

Ranma just nodded at this information and Cologne and the young man, Kyle, continued talking.

"So you seek an artifact which lead you to my village?" Cologne asked.

"Yes," Kyle responded, "I'll give you the rundown of what we're looking for and why. One of my companions hails from the Musk Dynasty of Martial Artists, his name is Herb, and is the Heir Apparent to the Dynasty. A long time ago he had the misfortune of falling into the 'Spring of Drowned Girl' at the Jusenkyo training grounds as a youngster. He has been handling the 'curse' quite well, though his version of 'handling it' is to try and outright avoid acknowledging its existence.

"Of course, you're wondering why I'm telling you this," Kyle said, looking at Ranma, "the reason is that the Musk Dynasty has two artifacts that are related to the Jusenkyo Springs: the Pail of Preservation and the Water Pot of Liberation. The Pail was used way back in the day when the Musk Dynasty separated the boys from their mothers around the age of four and they never saw a girl again until they captured an animal whose characteristics they liked or if they were a later generation the animal that their mother had been. You see, the Musk warriors gain much of their natural abilities from capturing animals, transforming them into women using the 'cursed spring' and then mating with them to produce a son. Sadly to say if a daughter was born it probably did not live to take its first breath, the Musk were and still are a highly male dominated society. The Pail I spoke of was used to lock the newly made women as humans, so that the men could easily mate with them. Strangely enough, the characteristics of the animals were preserved in the women and were passed on to the offspring."

"The other artifact in question, the Water Pot of Liberation, has power similar to the Pail, however instead of locking the curse, it unlocks it so that the creature now returns to going back and forth between its forms. Back to Herb now, his problem is that he was recently splashed with water from the Pail of Preservation and is locked in his female form. He would be here in person, but my other companion and I have forbade him…her…_it_…from completely covering up so as that nobody can tell what gender the person is beneath the robes. So, Herb is sulking back at the apartment that the three of us have purchased for our time here in Nerima."

"Hmmmm," Cologne mused, "this is off-subject but just how long do you intend to stay here?"

"Long enough for Ryu to graduate," Kyle returned, "he has about a year left of school and we convinced him that actually graduating from a high school is better off for him than taking the approach that Herb and I took, which was to be privately tutored. While both of us are quite capable, myself entering college to study history when I was 16, it is much more difficult for us to find employment as we don't have a high school degree."

"But you just said that you study history in college," Ranma managed to stammer.

"True," Kyle said, "I got lucky and my Graduate School, that's a school that provided education beyond college in a more specialized area, Ranma, allows me to perform my research abroad. Especially since what I'm studying is the history of major forms of martial art. However, without a high school degree or General Education Degree it was difficult for me to even enter the college I went to."

"But we have said enough about that," Kyle said turning the focus back to what he had come for, "we search for the Water Pot so that Herb can return to his usual cross-gendered self. The last record of that we could find of anyone possessing the Water Pot lead us to the Amazon village, and they directed us to you, Cologne, saying that you would be able to tell us where to find it."

"I can," Cologne said, "Ranma and a friend of hers happen to be going to the same forest that it is hidden in for a camping trip. I'm sure they would allow you to follow them there so you can find the treasure you seek."

Ranma was beginning to think that some deity out there was determined to punish her for enjoying beating up guys so much. The young man in front of her, Kyle, was easily better looking than all the boys at Furinkan High School, held himself like he was a martial artist, and talked with enough of an air of arrogance to tell her than he was smart enough to know that the chances of him being right far outweighed the chances of him being wrong. It seemed, or so she thought, that the gods, or god, had created this man for the sole purpose of getting under her skin in a way that she couldn't fight. She looked over at him, only to notice that he had pulled Mousse over and the two boys were talking quietly between the two of them. Mousse was scribbling notes down onto a piece of scratch paper so fast it seemed like the paper could catch fire at any moment.

"What are you two talking about?" Ranma asked.

"Nothing that concerns you," Kyle said to her before quickly going back to whatever he and Mousse were talking about. Ranma looked at the paper that Mousse was writing on, but was foiled again as Mousse was writing in English, which she had a limited knowledge of.

"So," Kyle said to her as he finished talking with Mousse, who hurried away to finish mopping, "I will need to talk with you about this camping trip you're planning on taking. Are you going to be done soon here?"

"I-I'm done," stammered Ranma, "just a sec, I need to change out of the uniform." She walked into the back room and slumped against the door.

"What is it?" Shampoo asked as she changed out of her uniform and into more comfortable clothing, "Why you all flustered?"

"Did you see the guy out there?" Ranma asked her friend.

"Yes," Shampoo said, "is quite good looking. Shampoo wonders what boy told Mousse."

"He said it didn't concern me when I asked him," Ranma said to her, as she changed into her street clothes, "but that's not what I'm concerned about right now. I'm worried about what seems to be happening to me while I'm around him. When he first started talking my heart just started pounding, and as he kept talking I seemed to just get mesmerized by him, it's like…"

"You attracted to him?" Shampoo asked with a sly grin, "You finally notice boys, then. Shampoo has too. Might go on date with Mousse if drops childish methods of asking. At least he ask _me _now instead of chair or hat stand." Mousse was incredibly near sighted and until recently when he gotten contacts had been barely able to see what was in front of him. Which made it very surprising for his opponents that he was as good as he was at fighting.

"Whatever, Shampoo, gotta go," Ranma waved to her friend and walked out to meet Kyle, who seemed to be balancing a chair on his forehead.

"Ah, there you are," he said, setting the chair back on the table, "Let's talk about this on the way back to your house, if my companions and I are going to be going with you to this forest we will need to know where each other live."

He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her, "This is the address of our apartment, and my phone number," he explained.

"Ok," was all that Ranma seemed to be able to say.

They walked out of the Cat Café and began walking to the Tendo house.

"How soon are you planning on taking this trip," Kyle asked Ranma.

"As soon as Akane and I have enough money," Ranma told him, "right now we think that we'll be able to manage that by about mid July which is good as that is when our summer break is."

"We could get you there by early July if you would like," Kyle offered, "think of it as a way of thanking you for showing us the way. Herb is at the point where if he was told that if he did some obscure little job for a day it would speed up the process of us finding the Water Pot he'd do it. Ryu and I are trying to get him more comfortable with his female form, not working too well. Maybe if a girl tried." His last statement was more to himself than to Ranma.

"I'm not sure how Akane would feel about going with three boys," Ranma said, 'I'm not sure how I feel about it either,' she thought.

"Understandable," Kyle responded, "why would that be, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, her sister likes to take pictures of us exercising and doing various other things, and then sells them to boys at school who have major infatuations on us, along with information about us. These boys have been trying to get Akane to go out with one of them for I don't know how long and I got dragged into it this year."

"I take it this isn't something either of you appreciate," Kyle mused, "have you tried anything to get her to stop."

"We would," Ranma groaned, "but she's a master blackmailer. She can dig up stuff on us that we _really_ don't want distributed better than we can."

"What's the worst thing that you think she would do?" Kyle asked.

"Either tell every boy in the school what color our panties are, for a fee might I add she doesn't do anything for free, or maybe even as far as get some of our panties and display them at the school," Ranma said.

"Is that it?" Kyle raised an eyebrow at Ranma's statement, "and she considers herself to be a master blackmailer. Heh, give me three hours and a video camera and I can change that attitude."

"How?" Ranma asked.

"You'll see if I ever do it," Kyle said off-hand.

"Please do, I've been trying to get her back for almost two months and haven't been able to figure anything out yet," Ranma said.

"Really, you'll let me do that?" Kyle grinned evilly, which sent a chill down Ranma's spine.

'I wonder what he's planning,' she thought.

"You said you were studying the history of martial arts," Ranma said, changing the subject, "are you a martial artist yourself as well?"

"Yes," Kyle replied, "my dad is rather good and he taught me to fight just about as well as he can. My mother also practices the art and taught me as well. Both of them teach at colleges and they gave me an educational background as well, with the help of my older brother whose 14 years older than me. Oddly enough, he only looks like he's three or four years my senior." Kyle laughed, "I have a twin sister as well. A rather large family if you ask me, especially when all of them practice the art. My father, brother, and I all have similar styles to each other while my mother and sister specialize in a style that emphasizes taking on large groups of people simultaneously."

By now they had arrived at the Tendo home, and Kyle, after noting where it was, bid Ranma good night, kissed the back of her hand like he was an English gentleman, and turned to walk home himself.

"Hold on a minute," Ranma said, "can I ask who your dad is? I know the names of most of the great martial artists of today and might recognize him."

"You wouldn't recognize the name even if I told it to you," Kyle said smiling at her.

'Damn that's a beautiful smile,' Ranma thought, 'why the hell am I thinking this?'

"You would know who he is though if I told you a title that he has," Kyle continued, Ranma's eyes widening as she heard this, "You've heard of the 'Worlds Strongest' fighter have you not?" Kyle asked, his grin widening at Ranma's dumbstruck look, "You know somehow I get the impression that we're going to be getting to know each other quite well."

With that, he turned and walked away, leaving Ranma to stumble back into her house with this new knowledge.

* * *

_That took some time. Took me two writing sessions to get through that. How do you like Kyle? Yes, I know, my character that I have made up has my penname. But if you have been to my profile you probably would have known that._

_Sorry if Kyle seems a little long winded and full of himself, it's just the way he seems to be written. He tends to be one of the people who has the best idea of what's going on in any of my stories that I think up so this is how he comes out._

_In any case: how'd I do? Do you like everything so far? Let me know, please review._


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma or any of the characters associated with it. Any of the other characters I made up myself.

Hello, this took a while to write. I hope my readers like it, I spent a lot of time looking over it and decided against doing certain things and putting in others instead. This is what came out of all that.

Kyle's character is based off a friend of mine, he does a lot of weird shit that he feels bad for doing afterwards and apologizes for. He doesn't really like hurting people but if they deserve it he'll dish it out.

I don't know how much longer I'm going to make this story last (I doubt it will make it to fifteen chapters, but you never know) I will finish it when I feel it is done. This could be in two chapters, or another five.

But anyways, enjoy.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Akane said to Ranma as the girls did their morning katas, "these three guys, all of which seem to be older than us, want to tag along with us on our camping trip so that they can find this weird water pot that counter acts the properties of a pail of water. On top of that, they're willing to pay for us so that they can get there faster."

"That pretty much sums it up," Ranma said to her, "only one of these guys spends part of his time as a girl due to the Jusenkyo 'curse'."

"Right," Akane said, "you don't think that they're going to, you know, try and…"

"If I think what you're going to say is what you're going to say, I don't think they would," Ranma told her, "If you ever meet this 'Kyle' character I think you would understand why. Also the fact that he's the son of the 'Worlds Strongest' fighter, I think he's decent enough to not try and hit on us."

"He's the son of you Idol?" Akane asked, eyebrows raised in amazement, "do you think he's any good at the art?"

"He implied that he is, saying that his dad trained him. His entire family studies the art. He'd give you a better picture than I could though," Ranma told her. She checked the clock, 6:40. "We should call it a day, for now, and get ready for school," she suggested.

The girls washed up in the furo, dressed in their uniforms, and headed to the dining room for breakfast. Ranma noticed that something was different about the morning as they entered the room. Akane noticed too, for she asked her father, "Where's Nabiki?"

"I haven't seen your sister yet this morning," Soun told her, "strange, she's usually downstairs by now. Ah! There she is!" He pointed to the entrance to the dining room where Nabiki was just entering, looking rather pale. She kneeled at the table, but instead of beginning to eat, she turned to Ranma and Akane.

"I'm sorry I sold pictures of you working out and doing things around the house," she said haltingly, "I will try to keep it to a minimum and keep the pictures more appropriate than I have in the past, and I will stop giving out information about you as well." She then picked up her breakfast and began to eat it mechanically.

Ranma and Akane looked at each other. "Why the sudden change of heart?" Akane asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Nabiki said.

The girls walked to school quietly, Nabiki still leaving a little ahead of them so it was just Ranma and Akane.

"I wonder what happened to her," Akane said as they walked.

"I kinda know," Ranma admitted, "I told Kyle that Nabiki considered herself a master blackmailer and he said to give him three hours and a video camera and he could change that attitude."

"I wonder what he taped," Akane mumbled.

The girls continued to walk in silence until they felt, Akane was beginning to be able to sense the presences of others now, two people walking toward them in a side street a few block ahead of them. This was unusual because this was the first time anyone other than themselves had walked this way at this time in the morning. Stopping to see who the people were Akane and Ranma looked down the street the alley they walked down each morning crossed.

Ranma immediately recognized one of the figures as Kyle, she could feel the familiar presence from the night before now that he was closer, but the other boy was a stranger to her. Odd thing was he was wearing the uniform of Furinkan High School. Kyle on the other hand was wearing an outfit similar to the day before's only he had skipped the trench coat.

"Oh, hey there," Kyle called out as the two boys walked up to the girls, "judging by the looks of your uniforms you go to the same school we signed Ryu here up at."

"Yeah," Ranma said, wondering why she seemed to get dumbstruck every time she saw Kyle. 'Come on, Ranma,' she thought to herself, 'he's just a boy for crying out loud.' The four of them turned and continued on their way to the school.

"Nabiki apologized for selling pictures and information about us this morning," Ranma said to Kyle, "what did you do exactly?"

"You sure you want to know that?" Ryu said, "Knowing Kyle it probably isn't pretty."

"I think I want to know," Akane said, "she is my sister and even if she annoys me I don't like seeing her hurt."

"She took it that badly?" Kyle said, raising an eyebrow, "I was going for more of a shock approach."

"Don't worry, she's seems more shocked than anything so you seem to have been successful," Ranma told him, "now what did you do?"

"I videotaped her while she was taking a bath," Kyle said, "don't worry," he reassured the two girls, who had horrified looks on their faces, "she has the only copy and she knows it, and the tape was only about 10 seconds long; of her in the bath anyway. I only did it to show her true blackmailing, though in its weakest form. My approach might have been a little harsh, but the harsh lessons in life are the ones that are learned the fastest."

"Do you feel guilty about it?" Akane managed to squeak.

"I feel bad about doing it," Kyle told her, "I hate getting mad, because I might hurt somebody when I get mad. When a person is angry about something their way of thinking becomes irrational. All they care about is getting back at whatever made them mad in the first place, even though both parties will end up getting hurt in the end."

"Oh, my," Ranma breathed.

"What?" Kyle asked her.

"I liked to get even with people in the past," Ranma explained to him, "though everything I did I considered a joke I never thought about how the other people would take it. I just cared that I got them back for whatever it was the happened to me."

"Did these people laugh it off with you when it was over?" Kyle asked her.

"Most of the time," Ranma admitted.

"Then most of them were just little jokes played to get back at someone in a playful manner," Kyle told her, "as long as both parties in question can laugh at it, it is a joke."

"Oh, shit," Akane said looking at her watch, "we walked too slow Ranma. We have five minutes to get to class and we still have to go through the morning assault."

"What's this?" Kyle and Ryu asked simultaneously.

"The boys at the school have created a competition that whoever can beat us in combat can date us," Akane explained, "I've had to deal with it longer than Ranma has, and it takes us a few minutes to get through it every morning and we don't have time this morning."

"Did Nabiki have a hand in this?" Kyle asked Akane.

"She got everyone infatuated with us, she didn't start it," Akane told him, "a Junior named Kuno did…"

"I see," said Kyle, cutting her off, "Ryu, I think we should give a demonstration of that unique martial arts style of yours, don't you think?"

"Hold this," Ryu responded, handing Kyle his bag. They drew near the school and the crowd of boys, growing back to its former size now that the incident with the panda hadn't happened again, came rushing out at the group.

"Ranma! Please! I love you! Go out with me!"

"Akane! You're so beautiful!"

"Please, just go on one date with me!"

"**FREEZE!**" shouted Ryu, running at the boys full tilt. Ranma and Akane gapped as the boys literally stopped dead for a split second, but that was all Ryu appeared to need. In a flurry of punches, kicks, and a few movements a little too fast to see, all the boys collapsed to the ground.

'Incredible,' Ranma thought, 'it takes us a good three minutes to deal with these guys on a fast day and Ryu just did it in under thirty seconds.'

"It's a school that your father sent my father," Ryu explained, looking at Ranma, taking his bag back from Kyle, "I think we should talk about it after school, seeing as we have three minutes to get to class."

"Hold up," Ranma said, "we have one more person to deal with, he doesn't feel that the rules he laid out for the contest apply to him so he hangs back and tries to chivalrously talk us into a date."

"I noticed," Kyle said, looking in the direction of Kuno who was walking toward the girls, chest puffed out, trying to look as impressive as he could, holding two bouquets of roses.

"Fair maidens…." He began.

"Stuff it, Kuno!" Ranma yelled at him, "I used to find this funny but now it's just damn annoying! Leave us alone for once and let us get to class!"

"My red-haired goddess found my competition amusing," Kuno cried, ignoring everything else Ranma had yelled at him, "at last, my goddess is weakening to my endeavors! We must go…"

"Hey!," Kyle said, walking toward Kuno, putting himself between him and the girls, "I believe she just gave you the equivalent of a 'fuck off, asshole' so why don't you listen to her and beat it!"

"Foul knave, you dare curse in front of maidens!" thundered Kuno throwing the flowers aside and raising his sword, "You must be punished! Fear not fair Ranma and Akane! I, Tatewaki Kuno, shall teach this cur a lesson!" He rushed at Kyle with his sword raised to strike.

"Kyle, move!" cried Ranma, rushing forward to stop Kuno, only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She looked back to see Ryu holding her back.

"Don't," he said simply, "Kyle will handle this appropriately."

"But he's unarmed!" Akane protested, also being held back by Ryu.

"A small detail like that won't stop him," Ryu reassured the girls, "he is, after all, probably the second most dangerous fighter in the world."

All Ranma could do was watch as Kuno rushed at Kyle, the boy she had meet yesterday that was so much different than all the other boys she had meet so far. She wanted to close her eyes and look away as the sword rose and came down on Kyle's head. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

THUNK

Ranma blinked. Kyle had raised his left arm above his head and blocked the sword with his forearm, stepping forward with his left foot slightly. She watched as Kyle pushed the sword out and away while aiming a punch at Kuno's face with his right hand. Her eyes widened again as Kuno was raised six feet off the ground and flew back fifteen to twenty feet before landing on his back. Kyle walked over to him and knelt by him, checking him for something.

"Good," he said, "for a moment there I was worried that I broke his cheek bone. He seems to have no greater injury than a massive bruise and most likely one hell of a concussion."

He stood up, and turned to Ryu and the girls. "You three want to head to class. I'll stay here and make sure that the school nurse gets everyone patched up properly," he told them.

---------------------------------------

"Oh, my god," breathed Misaki as the girls ate lunch later that day, "who were those boys that you walked to school with today. The younger one's a Senior, what was his name Ayaka? Ryu Kumon? Yeah. He took 38 seconds to knock out 43 boys this morning."

"What's this?" Akane asked, "Are the seniors timing us now?"

"They've been timing you for a long time," Ayaka explained, "your best record was, I believe, 2 minutes and 54 seconds. When the panda came with you it took one minute and three seconds; and the longest it's ever taken you is 5 minutes and 21 seconds."

Ranma and Akane looked at her, each with an eyebrow raised. "Jun's a Senior, remember," Ayaka reminded them.

"I was more impressed with the older one," Misaki said, "you know, the one that threw Kuno through the air with one punch. Do you know his name, Ranma?"

"His name's Kyle Moor," Ranma told her, "what about him?"

"He seems protective of you," Misaki smirked as Ranma choked on her food.

-------------------------------------

Ranma left the Cat Café after work was done and walked home. Mousse had acted differently today which had resulted in him not being thrown from the kitchens, though he had still gotten in a small argument with Shampoo over the subject of dating. Ranma suspected this had something to do with what he and Kyle had been talking about the day before.

As she approached her home, she noticed that there were guests in the house. One of them was Kyle, the other felt familiar, perhaps that was Ryu, and there was another presence which was completely unfamiliar to her.

'Maybe that person is that Herb that Kyle was talking about,' Ranma thought as she walked up to the house and opened the door, walking into the main room.

Sure enough, there was Kyle, sitting at the table with Nabiki, playing a board game she thought was called chess. Ryu was talking with Genma and Soun, and the Akane, Kasumi, and Nodoka sat with a girl with long, silvery hair tied back in a pony tail. The girl seemed rather uncomfortable.

'Must be Herb,' Ranma mused, 'Kyle said he wasn't particularly comfortable in his female form.' She turned her attention back to Kyle and Nabiki, Kyle was speaking.

"This is by far the longest game I've ever played," Kyle commented moving a black colored piece that looked like a horse over to a white colored tower-like piece, "You sure you've never played chess before?"

"I'm sure," Nabiki said as she evaluated the board. She eventually moved a thin, middle sized piece diagonally across the board a few squares, "would this be a 'check'?" she asked.

"It is, but," Kyle said as he moved one of his larger pieces in a straight line across the board to the piece Nabiki had just moved, removing it from the playing field, "this is 'checkmate'." Ranma had no idea what either of those terms meant, seeing as she had never played chess before, but it was apparent that Kyle had won.

"Ah, Ranma," Genma said from across the room, "since you're here now we can begin some more proper introductions."

He turned to Ryu, "This is Ryu Kumon, the son of an old friend of mine, he wasn't an old training partner like Soun, but both Soun and I knew Jan Kumon quite well. You already know Kyle Moor over there quite well, or so I am told. The girl over there with Akane is Herb, who's the Heir Apparent of the Musk Dynasty of Martial Arts, and is currently stuck in his female form after a slight accident back in China."

"I know dad," Ranma said, "I was in the restaurant when Kyle explained the whole thing."

"Alright then," Genma said, "we'll skip to the explanation of Ryu's martial arts style then."

"Several years ago I had an idea for two schools of the art," Genma explained, "my original intent was to style the twin techniques by equating body parts with parts of a house. The School of Yama-Sen Ken, or 1000 Mountain Path, was formed around the concept of a brute-force confrontation through the 'front door' of the house, in other words the practitioner attacked the front of their enemy. Its sister school of Umi-Sen Ken, 1000 Sea Path, directly contrasted with it being based off subtlety and 'sneaking in' through the 'back door', meaning that the practitioner primarily attacked the back of their enemy. Since we were out in the middle of nowhere at the time, we were on our training trip, you were about 10 years old Ranma, I wrote them down on scrolls to teach myself them a second time. It was then that I noticed something that I hadn't planned on."

"As it turned out, the techniques I was developing could be used by thieves as 'tools of living' instead of the intended 'tools of combat'. The 1000 Mountain Path was near perfect for a robber who would barge into a person's house and forcibly take what he wanted. Likewise the 1000 Sea Path was perfect for a burglar who would not want to be noticed as he took everything he could before fleeing the scene. Realizing this I kept the 1000 Sea Path scroll with me, as it was the more complex and difficult to combat style, and gave the 1000 Mountain Path scroll to Jan when we passed by his dojo. I asked him to keep it safe and teach it to no one unless he deemed them honest enough to not use it for personal gain. As Ryu just told me when he read through the scroll, he realized what I meant, and changed his career from Martial Artist, to S.W.A.T. Policeman. Using the techniques written on the scroll, he easily could go into major confrontations with armed robbers by himself and take them into custody. He was unfortunate enough, however, that on the last raid he ever performed one of the criminals managed to stay conscious long enough to aim a gun at him and shoot him while he was placing handcuffs on one of the other criminals. Though he was a big enough man to not be killed by the bullet immediately, the bullet tore through his lung and he died on the way to the hospital. Ryu, having inherited the scroll, planned on following his father into the police force. Around this time he ran into Kyle and Herb who were looking for a lost artifact and joined up with them in their search."

"That being said, I don't think there is any new information," Soun said, "we can go back to what we were doing."

With that he and Genma turned back to Ryu, who was now talking with Akane, so they left the room to plan the next day's classes instead. Nabiki had taken Akane's place talking with Herb, which left the Kyle and Ranma as the only two people not doing something. Kyle got up and walked over to Ranma.

"I'd like to talk to you in the dojo," he said, "meet me there in five minutes."

He walked out of the house with that. Ranma hurried to the guest room, which she still shared with her parents, changed into training clothes, and hurried to the dojo.

----------------------------------------------

Kyle was waiting for her there. He had changed himself, he no longer wore his black boots and jeans, trading them for no shoes and loose black training pants, and his black shirt had been swapped out for a white tank top. It took every ounce of will Ranma had to not stare at his arms. They had been nicely displayed in the T-shirt he had been wearing earlier but now that he had no sleeves there was nothing to hide them.

'Why does he have to have such a gorgeous body?' Ranma wondered, 'I hope he doesn't take his shirt off, I'd probably embarrass myself by obviously staring at him then.'

Kyle didn't wait for her to ask why he asked her to come out to the dojo.

"Akane told me that my dad happens to be your Idol and your greatest wish is that you can one day fight and beat him," he said, "I had a spar with your father before you came home as well. He told me that you can hold your own against him. Judging off of my fight with him and the fights I've had with my dad, you don't stand much of a chance at beating him as you are right now."

"Don't give me that look," he said, slightly exasperatedly at Ranma's utter shock, "I'd give you ten minutes with him which is about two minutes longer than anyone else has lasted in the past twenty years, excluding family members. However, if you want to be able to beat him, you're going to need to be able to beat me, which means you have a lot of work ahead of you. To begin, I want to spar you personally to see how good you are in person rather than second hand."

He dropped into a relaxed stance, and waited for Ranma to assume her own. Ranma swallowed at this. She was about to have a quick fight with a person who was probably to her as she was to Akane when they first met. She needed to have a cool head for this and remember everything she had learned for this match.

---------------------------------------------

"Nabiki," Akane said to her second oldest sister, "Kyle told us what happened to you this morning. Ranma and I would like to apologize for wanting to get back at you like that, but we didn't really know how to."

"It's okay, Akane," Nabiki told her, "I shouldn't have been selling pictures of you in the first place. And Kyle apologized for doing it while we were playing chess."

Akane smiled, "Can I ask a favor of you?" she asked blushing.

"Yes," Nabiki looking at her questioningly. "Could you find out what Ryu thinks of me?" Akane asked in as quiet a voice as she could, blushing furiously.

Nabiki smirked, "I told you this day would come, little sister," she teased.

"Don't get full of yourself, big sister," Akane grumbled.

--------------------------------------------------

Ranma sat on the floor of the dojo, holding an ice pack to her shoulder. She ached everywhere. Kyle, as expected, was far better than any other fighter she had encountered. She had managed to get a few solid hits in on him, though she thought that he was holding back a little and may have let her hit him, but for the most part he had elegantly evaded or blocked each of her attacks, sometimes sending a few of his own her way. Those usually made contact and they hurt, hence why she now had an ice pack on her shoulder while Kyle evaluated her.

"You're at least as good as your father," he said, "and seeing as how at the end you were seeing through some of my attacks and could block them you are a fast learner. That is to your advantage seeing as the techniques that you will be learning from me are difficult to say the least."

"Are you implying that you're going to train me to beat your dad?" Ranma asked him.

"Sure, why not?" he grinned at her, "Dad could use a challenge, and you're one of the best fighters of the day, and you have never fought him before. This will be to your advantage when you fight him. He will have little to no knowledge of your fighting style while you learn from me what his basic style is like. Also the 1000 Sea Path might be a good thing to learn from your father."

"You say that the techniques you use are difficult," Ranma said, Kyle nodded, "however, the move that you used on Kuno earlier today looked as basic as they came. Care to explain?"

"I'm going to take a guess and say that you saw me hit Kuno once, right?" Kyle asked.

"Well, you did," Ranma sent back.

Kyle shook his head.

"If you had been watching carefully," he said, "you would have seen me punch him _three times_. I combined a simple technique from a martial arts school called Tae Kwan Doe and a difficult technique which doesn't really belong to any school involving repetitive hits in a split second. The amount of damage done in a 'single blow' is increased exponentially with each consecutive hit."

Ranma gapped at him. She had been right when she had thought that he was holding back while fighting her. Kyle got up from where he had been sitting.

"I'd recommend getting in as good a condition as you can before the camping trip," he said, "because I plan on making a rather intense training session."

Ranma nodded, and then let out a squeak as Kyle swept her up off the floor and carried her to the furo.

"However," he said, "this doesn't mean I can't contribute to your conditioning beforehand. If I let you go on that trip unprepared what kind of teacher would I be?"

"Are you suggesting something?" Ranma blanched.

"Hell no," Kyle said, putting her down in the changing room, "you probably noticed a change in that boys behavior at that diner you work at. I told him that you woo a woman though subtlety and 'masculine wiles'." He grinned at that, "Most of which involves this," and took off his shirt, smirking slightly as Ranma openly gapped at his body. "A guy can't force the girl he likes into liking him back," he continued, "but with a little persuasion, some patience, and a deep respect for the girl he can win her over in time."

"And do you like me?" Ranma asked, blushing as she realized what she just asked. She looked away; she didn't want to see the look on Kyle's face. But then she felt his hand on her chin pulling her face gently back up to met his. He waited until her eyes met his.

"What do you think?" he asked, before bending down and kissing her softly.

Ranma had a brief moment to wonder if she was in heaven before Kyle pulled away, excusing himself so that she could take her bath.

* * *

_So, do you like? Is it what you expected? I realize that some characters, like Genma, are drastically out of character. However, I don't particularly like how characters are portrayed in some of the various animes and mangas, the worst in Dragonball Z (sorry if any fans are reading this, I like the manga to but I can't stand how they make these two hundred pound fighters the most naive people on the face of the earth). So I like to change things up a bit when I make up my own story._

_In any case, how'd I do? Let me know, please review._


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma and I am running out of silly ways of saying it.

Well it's been a while since my last update. One of my reviewers said that Kyle's character is what you would call a Mary Sue or a self insertion into the story. In a way, I guess Kyle could be like that. There are a few of Kyle's quirks that I have. But Kyle's character is mainly based off of things that I have seen in movies or read in books or have taken from other people. So he is kinda a Mary Sue, but not completely one. If that makes any sense at all.

I'm spending a little more time writing these, making sure I like what I've written before I send it out. Hopefully I am not dissappointing anyone yet.

Anyway, here's chapter 8: Enjoy.

* * *

Ranma, Akane, Herb, Ryu, and Kyle, all sat in the train compartment together. It had been a week since Kyle kissed Ranma, and Furinkan High School was not in session for summer break. Nabiki had paid careful attention to Ryu for Akane and had been able to tell her that Ryu was likely to be far more interested in her than many of the other girls at Furinkan.

"He appears to like athletic girls," she told Akane, "though he doesn't seem to have much of a preference beyond that. Seeing as you do martial arts, like him, instead of other sports, I'd say you have an advantage over pretty much every girl in the school. With the exception of Ranma, but she seems to be taken."

She said that with a huge smirk on her face. The next day, the day before break started, the only person to show up to fight Ranma and Akane for the right to date them was Kuno. There had been a steady decline in the boys as Ryu now meet up with the girls on the way to school every day and so was present every morning when Akane and Ranma arrived at school. On the last day, Herb, who had been hearing about this from Ryu and Kyle, decided that Kuno needed a proper beating and came with Ryu on the walk to school. She decided that in order to get him to stop he needed something else to chase after; so she showed up wearing tight black leather pants with a sports bra and no shirt. Quite scandalous to say the least, and Ryu told Akane and Ranma that this was quite odd of Herb considering he/she was very self conscious of his/her female form.

Kuno had gone bug-eyed when he saw Herb standing there and had gone straight to her, completely ignoring Ranma and Akane, and began to profess his love for her. The next thing he remembered or so Dr. Tofu later told them was waking up in the doctors' clinic covered in bandages. Herb had taken great pleasure in beating the shit out of Kuno and the only reason why she had stopped was because Kyle had shown up and dragged her off before she killed Kuno.

Kyle made Herb spend several hours talking with Nodoka and Kasumi about how to act properly as a 'common person' and planned on making him/her have several more. Herb, being the Heir Apparent to the Musk Dynasty, was used to being able to do just about anything and not have to deal with the consequences. Kyle and a few other people, now, had it in mind to change that.

It was now the next day and the five companions were traveling through the country side by train to get to the woods they planned to camp out at. To pass the time they were playing games. Kyle had a deck of cards, for which he knew several games, and at the moment they were playing poker. They were using potato chips in place of real poker chips since they didn't have any.

"Now Herb," Kyle said as he dealt out another hand, "you never gave us a full story for how you got splashed with that Pail."

"Yeah, so?" Herb shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, seeing as we're helping you find the thing that will reverse the lock we think that we should at least know what happened," Kyle said looking at his cards, discarding two of his five.

"Ok, well, you see, um," Herb was obviously uncomfortable about this, "hey I need to use the bathroom, be right back."

"Oh, no you don't!" Ryu said lunging across the compartment, "Akane, Ranma, help me hold her down!"

"Hey! What're you doing? No! Let me go!" Herb struggled against the two girls and the boy holding her down. She might have gotten away if Ryu wasn't using his 'Crushing Embrace' technique from the 1000 Mountain Path School.

"Herb, calm down," Kyle said picking up the cards, and shuffling them for a re-deal, "we just want to know what happened. It can't be _that bad_ can it?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Herb grunted as she managed to wiggle an arm free, only to have it grabbed by Ranma.

"You realize I have several methods to _persuade_ you to talk," Kyle informed her, putting the cards down, "but the least 'painful way' is for you to just tell us." He cocked his head to the side and smiled at her friendly-like.

"Not going to say it," vowed Herb.

"O-o-o-o-o-kay," Kyle drawled, leaning in toward Herb's face, "method number four." He pulled his lower eyelid down with one hand and used the other to poke his eye (**A/N: if any of you have seen ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS this is what Ace did when interrogating a guy**).

"Hey! Stop that! That's disgusting!" Herb cringed, trying to look away, but for some reason couldn't, "It's. Unngh. Ack! Fine I'll tell you! Just get off me!"

"Ok," Kyle said, pleased with the outcome. He stopped and walked over to the door, blocking anyone from getting in or out as Ryu, Akane, and Ranma untangled themselves from Herb. Herb sighed as she sat back down.

"About a month before Kyle came to the Musk, I was approached by a servant and informed of an arranged marriage between me and a woman. This not being uncommon I was not bothered by this at all and was prepared to make the best of it. Until it I found out who I was betrothed to. It was a girl that I had known since childhood. This would be a good thing, I would know my bride well, but I cannot marry her. Another man I knew was planning on proposing to her in a week's time. I would have gone ahead and married the girl without incident, but the relationship I had with both my friend and this lady was something I did not want to destroy because of my parents betrothing us."

Akane looked at Herb with a raised eyebrow. "And this is embarrassing to tell us because…?" she asked.

"I can take a guess," Ranma said, "it's embarrassing because you're having to run from it. You intentionally got splashed with the Pail so that it would be impossible for you to marry the woman unless you found the Water Pot."

"Yes," Herb admitted, blushing, "Kyle was in the village at the time studying our history for his little project. Both of his parents are known to the Musk, his mother being the lady that changed the ways that the Musk portrayed women in society by taking on all the available warriors at the same time and winning without so much as a scratch on her, and his father, showed up a day later asking if anyone had seen his wife. I think that it was a bit of a staged thing as when the Musk pointed her out, probably hoping he had come to put her in her place, he walked up to her, asked her opinion on a set of flowers for the garden, and then left. His father later taught a few of our warriors some techniques, and drilled a respect for women into the minds of the next generation. The Musk still are a heavily patriarchal society, but the boys are no longer weaned from their mothers, or the girls raised separated from the boys."

"Would these two people go by the names 'Celery' and 'Garlic'?" Kyle asked.

"Yes," Herb said, looking at him weirdly.

"Alrighty then," Kyle said, pulling out a cell phone and dialing a number.

"Hey, mom," he said, "Do you think either you or Ann could head to the Musk Dynasty for a little while? There's a pair of individuals that need to be married before I get Herb back there. Names are Celery and Garlic. What was that last bit? Yes, mother, I have been eating properly. I've also obtained a student. Her name is Ranma Saotome. Mom, what..." he put his hand over the mouth piece of the phone. "She's asking if she needs to teach you the casserole recipe yet," he said a little weakly.

"Might as well just buy the ring now," Ryu said, throwing his hands in the air as if in mock exasperation.

"I never even said if we had made it to the first level of intimacy, mom," Kyle said back into the phone. "Wait. Hold everything. I told you everything you need to know, I'm going to hang up before this other conversation goes anywhere," with that he hang the phone up. "That got a little too close there," he commented sitting back down.

"What was that all about with the 'casserole recipe' thing?" Akane asked.

"American tradition, though I don't think it originated in America," Kyle explained, "many families have a family recipe that they pass down through the generations. The significance of mom asking if she needs to teach Ranma the recipe is that she thinks that the relationship between us is intimate or mature enough that the possibility of marriage isn't that far off and she therefore needs to teach her the recipe. That's why Ryu here said that I might as well just go ahead and buy the engagement ring."

"Are we that far along in the relationship?" Ranma breathed.

"I don't know, what do you guys think?" Kyle asked as he pulled Ranma close to him and she rested her head on his shoulder. They looked at the three people sitting across from them expectantly.

"Um…" Akane mumbled.

"Any way," Kyle said, picking up the deck of cards, "something that can prevent problems like Herbs from happening is giving the parents, or opponents, the illusion of control. A good representation is with a little card trick here."

He picked up the cards and fanned them out, "Pick any card and show it to us," he instructed Ranma.

Ranma picked one of the cards and showed everyone in the compartment.

"Queen of Hearts, eh," Kyle said, taking the card back and putting in somewhere in the deck, "Ok," he cut the deck and set the two halves on the little table they had in the compartment.

"Pick a half," he instructed. Ranma picked the left half, and Kyle took the right pile away.

Kyle then placed the cards face down in groups of four. "Pick three," he instructed. Ranma pointed to three groups and Kyle took the rest away.

"Pick one," Kyle told her. Ranma pointed to the middle one, which Kyle took away.

"Pick another one," Kyle told her. Ranma picked the one farthest away from her, which stayed on the table.

"Pick two cards," Kyle instructed her. Ranma pointed to two cards, which were taken away.

"Pick one," Kyle told her. Ranma pointed to a card, which Kyle flipped over.

It was the Queen of Hearts.

"Damn!" Akane gapped at the card, "How'd you do that?"

"Can't tell you," Kyle said, "magicians never tell other people know trade secrets, so I can't tell you how this works. I will tell you that all stage magic revolves around giving the audience the illusion of control. Meaning that it seems like one person has 'all the cards in their hand' but the person who really does is the magician. This works in combat and getting out of sticky situations in general. By making it seem that the other person has all the power over the situation, they overlook the fact that they really have none."

"Now, here's a trick that I can't explain even if I wanted too," Kyle told them, "here we have the Queen of Hearts again. Put it in the middle of the deck…"

He held the deck out to Akane, "Hold this between your middle and pointer finger loosely," he told her. When she had done so he smacked the deck, knocking all but one of the cards onto the floor. Kyle took the card from her and looked at it.

"Queen of Hearts," he said.

"What!?" Herb said, "Show me it!" Her eyes widened as she looked at the Queen of Hearts held in Kyle's hand.

"Wow," was all Ranma could manage to say.

---------------------------------

"Well, here we are," Akane said several hours later. The companions had gotten off the train at the town just outside the forest and had hiked their way to the camping grounds. The forest they were staying at was a relatively popular place to stay at, but they were in the backpacking campgrounds so there was hardly anyone else within earshot of them. The camping area they were at was a good one, right next to the lake in the woods.

-----------------------------------

"So, Kyle," Ranma said sitting next to him on a log, "when are we going to start training?"

"Probably as soon as we figure out where the Water Pot is, but that would be if we cared about having Herb being in a good mood," Kyle grinned, "otherwise, we would be starting…NOW!" He grabbed her and wrestled her to the ground.

Ranma, thinking quickly, squirmed out of his grip and jumped to her feet. Spinning to face him, she realized that he was no longer there. She suddenly felt something grab her from behind, and found herself back on the ground this time in a hold she couldn't get out of.

"Need to work on that," Kyle said into her ear, "A fighter should be poised to be ready at any moment. However there is a fine line between being ready for anything and being paranoid. Paranoid means that you expect anything to happen at any time. Being ready means that you are observant and taking in your surroundings so that if anything is out of place you are on your guard."

"And then there are the tricky people like you," Ranma said, trying to turn around in his grip to face him, "you're kinda random so it's difficult to categorize something as 'out of place' with you."

"Then you just need to be good enough to be able to counter anything I can come up with," Kyle grinned letting her go, "Being random is a defense against predictability. You have to be good enough at enough different things that you don't have to use the same techniques over and over again."

"Just how much are you planning to teach me?" Ranma asked, leaning back into Kyle's chest smiling happily when he wrapped his arms around her. Had she known what it felt like to have a boyfriend she might have gotten one earlier.

"It'll be mostly hand to hand combat training out here," Kyle told her, "however I'll be getting into weapons training when we get back. Dad knows how to use just about every weapon out there, course he's been fighting for sixty maybe seventy years he's had a long time to learn. I'll probably just teach you enough to defend against him considering the fact that we don't exactly have twenty years to teach you all of this."

"Why is that?" Ranma asked.

"Let's say you train for twenty years for one match," Kyle said, "what do you think happens when that one match is over and you win. What will you do after that? You just spent the last twenty years preparing for a ten minute fight."

"I see what mean," Ranma said, "Shall we continue?"

With that she spun around and tackled Kyle to the ground. Kyle easily got out of the hold and spun to face her, only to find that she wasn't there anymore. He, unlike Ranma, was able to turn and face her as she came at him from another direction, but she had counted on that. Instead of trying to tackle him back to the ground, she jumped into the air, landing on his upper body, wrapped her legs around his waist and arms around his neck. Her momentum and landing position caused him to lose balance and fall over backward.

"You learn quickly," Kyle grinned up at her from his prone position on the ground. Ranma kissed his forehead.

"You're a good teacher," she told him.

----------------------------------

"Good to know that you're having a good time," Herb grumbled later at dinner.

"Hey, the Water Pot isn't the only reason we are here," Ryu said to her.

"Can I ask a question?" Kyle turned to Akane, "why is this area so popular?"

"Well the lake is unnaturally warm," Akane explained, "even during the winter."

Kyle, Herb, and Ryu looked at each other. "It's that simple isn't it?" Kyle said.

"What's simple?" Akane asked looking at Ryu.

"We're going to test a theory," Ryu explained, "Herb let's take a quick plunge in the lake."

Herb began taking off her clothes, leaving only her pants on. She then sprinted for the lake. Leaping out into it, she executed a diving belly flop causing a rather large splash. A few minutes later a man came out of the water looking an awful lot like Herb.

"Yep," Kyle said, turning back to his food, "it was that simple."

* * *

_I saw both those card tricks while on a boat in Alaska. I'm more impressed with the second one, but that's only because I can't do the second one. I'm starting to run low on ideas for what to do in the story so I don't expect the story to be much longer._

_So, how'd this chapter go? Let me know, please review._


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. There I said it, happy?

Ok, I got a critique of Kyle a while ago, where the critiquer reminded me of a few things to watch out for when using an original character. This came in the middle of me writing chapter 9, so taking what the reviewer had to say, I looked over what I had written so far, and decided to rewrite half the chapter. Thank you reviewer, wherever you are.

So, without further adou, chapter 9: Enjoy.

_

* * *

_

_-Six weeks after the camping trip-_

Kyle stood in the middle of the dojo holding a broad sword. He stood perfectly still, as if he were trying to locate something using his senses.

In truth he was, "I know you're in here Ranma," he said, eyes moving around the room, "I walked in with you. Now you are good enough at the 1000 Sea Path to have left the dojo without me noticing it but I don't think you have left."

He sniffed the air. "Plus," he said, "I still smell two people in here: me and someone else. And since the only other person that knows the 1000 Sea Path is currently on the second floor of the house, the logical assumption would be that the other person in the room is you."

He slowly turned around, scanning the room. "Remember, the only things being masked by your technique is your battle aura and your visual appearance," he said, "I can still hear you, if you're not careful, and smell you, so don't rely heavily on this late in a battle when you're all sweaty."

He dropped to the floor seconds before Ranma's katana sliced through the air where the top of his head had been.

'Damn,' Ranma thought, 'that was so close!'

"That," Kyle said as he rolled away and got up, "was a little too close. This has gotten to the point where this is training for me as much as it is for you." He wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. "How much longer do you want to go?" he asked.

"You're not telling me 'ten more minutes' or 'run through this kata until you commit it to memory'?" Ranma raised an eyebrow at him.

"Our relationship as 'sensei and pupil' has changed," Kyle said attacking her with his broad sword, she deftly parried each attack and sent counters back at him, "I'd say we are now 'sparring partners benefiting from each other's knowledge'."

He ducked under her swing and swept her legs out from under her with his left leg.

She punched him in the face as she fell back, hit the floor, and then rolled backwards and up onto her feet.

"Knives?" she suggested.

"Knives," Kyle agreed.

They walked over to the cabinet that Kyle had installed to hold the various weapons that they would be using. There were a variety of swords: katana's, broad swords, rapiers, scimitars, and a claymore; amongst the smaller weapons: knives, maces, mallets, etc. The claymore was there only because Kyle had told Ranma that it was his father's favorite weapon.

"It's a powerful weapon," Kyle had said, "but it's more suited for a clash between armies than a duel with only two people. I personally find it a bit awkward; if you really want to learn how to use it I would ask my dad to teach you himself."

Kyle and Ranma placed their swords in their proper places and picked out a knife before closing the enormous cabinet. When they weren't in the dojo training all four locks to the cabinet were locked. When they were in the dojo training, the dojo was locked and Genma, Soun, Ryu, and Akane took turns guarding it so that nobody would somehow enter it while the 'sharp pointy objects' were being swung about. It was currently Akane's turn.

Ranma began the new match by kicking Kyle in the stomach. Kyle caught her foot and threw her into the wall. She twisted her body around as she flew through the air, landing on the wall feet first, pushing off it and running back at Kyle. The two fighters both took a jab at each other with their knives simultaneously, and caught each others' hand simultaneously. Wrestling for control, the pair toppled over and landed on the floor, Ranma on top of Kyle.

Ranma punched Kyle in the face again, though this time he blocked it and punched Ranma square in the chest. This caused Ranma to fall off Kyle, who rolled to his feet, only to go to one knee as Ranma kicked him in his left shin. She then kicked him in the face, sending him to his back again.

"You like aiming for my face," Kyle commented as he kicked her in the stomach with both feet, sending her reeling back.

"It's the most vulnerable spot in your defense," Ranma told him, regaining her balance.

"I'll take that into consideration," Kyle responded, jumping to his feet.

The pair circled each other. "You know, even though all the weapons are dull," Kyle said as he dodged a swing from Ranma, "what we do in here is still pretty dangerous."

"How so?" grunted Ranma, blocking an attack from Kyle.

"We can still," Kyle started, hooking Ranma's weapon arm with his and slamming both blades into a practice dummy, "impale ourselves on them," he finished.

Ranma looked at the dummy. Both blunt blades had been driven in to the hilt.

"Yeah that would be bad," she commented, aiming a punch at Kyle's face.

He grabbed it and threw her across the room.

'Need to get a shot in on him,' she thought as they circled each other, this time weaponless. A new idea came to her head. 'Might as well try it,' she thought. She attacked him with a blow to the stomach, which he blocked. She then followed that move with a high kick to the head, which he caught. With her center of gravity already low, she dropped her hand to the floor, supporting her weight and used her other foot to kick him in the stomach, this one making contact.

Kyle took the blow, but then swung her around by her leg, letting go and sending her crashing into another practice dummy. She landed on her hands and knees. Both of them paused for a moment, having had their opponent knock the wind out of them.

"As for vulnerability," Kyle said, getting his breath back, "you set yourself up quite nicely to get thrown around like I'm doing with you. You do react well to it, but as you can see you don't always 'land on your feet'."

He chuckled at that, "I hope I wasn't the only one to find that corny," he said.

Ranma was back on her feet. She was exhausted, her muscles ached, her head throbbed, and she could taste blood in her mouth. Kyle didn't look much better, his normal relaxed stance was a little more rigid than usual and there was blood streaming down his face from a cut above his eye. Neither fighter was breathing hard and all signs of fatigue were hidden well enough that the only people who would be able to tell would be the people that fought them the most often.

"One more pass," she said, Kyle nodded.

They faced off again, Kyle leading this time, mimicking Ranma's strategy and aiming for her face.

Ranma dodged, but felt Kyle hit her in the side with his knee.

'Mimicked me in two ways,' she thought. She countered by head butting him, and punched him in the chest.

He grabbed her arm and went to throw her again, but she countered, twisting his arm in a painful manner.

He flipped over on the spot, pulled his arm out which forced her to bend over, and elbowed her in the back.

She hit him in the balls on her way to the floor, resulting in both of them on the floor. She got up before he did, but he didn't take long to get back up.

"You know," he said, as they traded blows, "it's a good thing Ryu decided to start training with Akane. You used to be her training partner and now you spend most of your free time training with me."

"You realize that Akane has developed a bit of a crush on the guy?" Ranma asked, grabbing his left arm, wrapping her arm around it and holding it to her side.

"Yeah," Kyle told her, doing the same for her left arm, "and I also know what his feelings toward her are."

"Really," Ranma grunted, head butting him in the chest, "mind telling me?"

"I'll make a deal with you," Kyle said, walking her into a wall, "you get out of this hold, and put me into submission and I'll say just about anything."

"Deal!" Ranma smirked.

She pushed off the wall with her legs, forcing Kyle to momentarily relax his arms. Releasing his arm and freeing her own she pivoted around so her back was to Kyle's front. She threw him to the floor, straddled his waist, and slammed her fist into his head.

Kyle lay there limp for a moment before blinking and groaning.

"Does that qualify as 'submission'?" Ranma asked sweetly.

"That blew by 'submission' and hurtled all the way to 'knock out'," Kyle said, "Call Akane in here, I'll answer questions as soon as I see only one of you."

-----------------------------------

"So you're saying you got the shit beat out of you by a _girl_?" Ryu asked Kyle later that night. They were at Dr. Tofu's where Kyle was getting patched up. The cut above his right eye required stitches and his left eye sported a massive shiner.

"Careful, Ryu," Kyle warned his friend as Kasumi stitched him up, "Remember, I can beat you, and Ranma just beat me. Using a bit of logic, what does this imply? Also, as of right now, I can think of three if not four 'girls' who could kick your ass."

Ryu stared at him incredulously. "Who?" he asked folding his arms across his chest.

"Let's see," Kyle said holding up his hand so that he could count off on his fingers, "there's my mom, believe me you don't want to fight her, I've beaten her before and still get scared when I have to spar her; then there's my sister, mom trained her, well she trained all of us, anyway; and then there's Ranma, you can see what she can do; and then there's Akane."

He looked over at Ryu, who was blushing at the name. "Oh, yes, almost forgot: Herb. But he…she…it…kinda belongs in a category all by itself," Kyle smirked.

"Alright, yes those ladies are good," Ryu admitted, "But how do you feel about losing to one? You seem quite pleased about being here right now."

Kyle chuckled. "My girlfriend was the person who beat me up," he said, "of course I'm pleased with the outcome. Not only did I teach her nearly a third of the stuff she knows, but when we spar, it's the greatest thing ever."

He sighed, probably would have leaned back too if Kasumi wasn't still stitching him up. "Guys out there talk about going biking, or playing tennis, or doing other things with their girlfriends all the time. Some of them their girlfriend is the stronger person at the activity. But name me a few people who can honestly say that they can _fight_ their girlfriend and worry about losing to her."

He grinned, "One of the things I love doing is finding contradictions to stereotypes. You're familiar with the saying 'you hit like a girl'?"

"Yeah," Ryu said, not sure where this was going.

"Well, my girl, when she gave me the shiner," Kyle pointed to his black eye, "hit me five times in a split second. She's better at that technique than I am. How's that for 'hitting like a girl'?"

"Will you hold still a moment, Kyle?" Kasumi asked gently, "I need to tie off the stitch."

Kyle sat as still as could be while Kasumi finished her work.

"There," she said, "I'm not sure why I had to come all the way to Tofu's to sew you up. I could have just done it at home."

"Well, that isn't the only…" Ryu began to say.

"SHHHT," Kyle shushed Ryu, raising an eyebrow at him.

"What was that Ryu?" Kasumi asked, putting away the stitching supplies.

"The main reason for you coming here…." Ryu tried again.

"None of that now, my lad," Kyle said, giving Ryu a mock-stern look.

"What is all the commotion out here for?" Dr. Tofu's voice came in through the door, he entered carrying stitching supplies. "Kyle, why are you all stitched up? Who did it? And… Kasumi?" Dr. Tofu's hands began to quiver as soon as he saw Kasumi standing there removing the gloves she wore while attending to Kyle.

"Hey Doc," Kyle said, "bet you and Kasumi are wondering what the hell is going on?"

"Kyle…" Kasumi scolded, "you know how I feel about that kind of language."

"Yeah, I know," Kyle said offhand, "Anyway, what's going on here is that some people feel that there is a need for some encouragement in store for you, Dr. Tofu."

"Kyle," Tofu said, "you remember what your father has said about the path a person walks, do you?"

"Of course I remember it," Kyle grinned, standing up, "Each person must walk their own path their own way. However, sometimes a person is too afraid or too uncertain of themselves to continue down their path. At times like these, friends must step in to give encouragement to the 'traveler' so that they may once again continue down their path."

"And what is it that my friends believe I need encouragement with?" Tofu asked Kyle.

"Take a guess," Ryu said, as both he and Kyle looked at Kasumi.

---------------------------------

"Do you think that Kyle was the best person to do this?" Akane asked Ranma.

"Well, he's good at giving people shit and doesn't take shit from anyone," Ranma told her. The girls were doing their homework while waiting for Kyle or Ryu to come back with the news of how the plan to get Dr. Tofu to confess to Kasumi had gone. Akane had been planning it for weeks, but couldn't decide who the best person to initiate the confrontation was. When Kyle had told her about how Ryu felt about her, she could hardly concentrate on her homework now, she decided that sending him down to the clinic with Kasumi to be stitched up would be appropriate.

"How long do you think it's going to take them?" Akane asked Ranma.

"Akane, I don't know," Ranma told her friend, "but if you keep being distracted like this we're never going to get this done."

"I know," Akane groaned, "but I can't concentrate."

"Ranma! Akane! Ryu's back from Tofu's," Nabiki called upstairs. Akane had to control herself as she walked down the stairs to the main room. Ryu was sitting there talking with the adults, who left as Ranma and Akane entered the room.

"So how'd it go?" Ranma asked sitting down.

"All according to plan," Ryu reported, "After a few stuttering attempts, Tofu managed to gather enough courage to tell Kasumi his feelings. It also helped that Kasumi sat there patiently smiling at him. Kyle and I left as soon as they really started the confession."

"Were they making out?" Akane asked mouth gapping.

"Not just yet," Ryu said, turning to her, "Kyle and I left so that we wouldn't have to watch that."

"Speaking of Kyle," he said turning to where Ranma was sitting, "He recently got a letter from…where's Ranma?"

He looked around, trying to find Ranma but Akane knew he would be unsuccessful. The girls had agreed that as soon as Ryu directed his attention away from Ranma, she would use her 1000 Sea Path training to slip from the room, giving Akane privacy with Ryu. Akane took a deep breath, now it was her turn.

"Ryu," she said, "I have something to tell you."

"Huh?" Ryu responded, still trying to figure out where Ranma had gone.

"Before Kyle went down to Tofu's with you and Kasumi, he told Ranma and I some interesting things," Akane told him, watching him pale, "concerning you."

"Wha-what? I…I…" Ryu stammered, white as a sheet.

"And me," Akane finished.

That did it. Ryu went even paler, if it were possible, before going beet red and beginning to stammer out an explanation.

"I-I'm sorry," he stammered, "It's just, I, um,…" Akane took inner pleasure watching him squirm for a few minutes before continuing.

"It's alright," she reassured him, "the picture of me sparring with you in your wallet was given to you because I asked my sister, Nabiki, to give it to you. She never told me if you took it so I didn't find out until Kyle told us in the dojo this evening."

"What's this all about?" Ryu said, seeming like he was about to panic.

"Relax," Akane coaxed, shifting closer to him, her heart pounding so hard she wondered if Ryu could hear it, "Kyle also told us a few other things."

"Like what?" Ryu said, sitting very rigid.

"Well," Akane said, scooting even closer to him, "he told us how your mother died when you were a baby. And how your father raised you to be strong, but at the same time failed to let you see the how much he truly cared for you. You aren't used to kind, gentle people, are you?" She looked up into his eyes, seeing the uncertainty in them.

"In a way you're like Dr. Tofu," she continued, "loving someone from a distance. Too scared of the consequences of confessing to that person what you really feel. Only unlike Tofu, you're not scared that I'll reject you. You're scared of what showing a more tender side of you will do; scared of having someone treat you with love."

"What about you?" Ryu asked, "You're widely considered a tomboy. Aren't you scared of what having a boyfriend will do to that image?"

"I'm terrified," Akane confessed, "but I like you, a lot, and I'd rather be your girlfriend and have my tomboy image destroyed than preserve it and do as Dr. Tofu and Kasumi have been doing."

"Well, I guess, uh…" Ryu seemed unsure of what to do.

"Here, let me," Akane told him. She moved until she sat sideways in his lap, leaning against his body. Ryu sat tense for a moment before relaxing and putting his arm around her. They sat there in silence, reveling in the fact that they had just confessed their feelings to each other, Akane directly, Ryu indirectly, for a few moments.

"Ryu," Akane said, looking up at him, "you were saying something about Kyle getting a letter, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Ryu confirmed, "Kyle thinks that Ranma is just about ready to take on his dad. Herb sent Kyle a letter from China, saying that Kyle's dad was currently staying with the Musk, having just dealt with a conflict with the leader of the Phoenix People. You may have heard of him, his name is Saffron."

"What's this to do with Ranma?" Akane raised an eyebrow at her new boyfriend.

"Well, Herb told Kyle's dad about Ranma and Kyle's dad is planning on staying with the Musk until he hears from Kyle saying that Ranma is ready to fight him," Ryu told her, "All Ranma needs to do is tell Kyle that she's ready and he can send the word."

* * *

_Well, this was fun. Heh, heh, the stupid romantic books I checked out from the library out of sheer boredom a few years ago had some use to them after all._

_As of right now I'm planning on there being two more chapters, don't know when either one will come out. By the way, I was trying to get the POV of each main character as a segment of the chapter: Ranma, Kyle, and Akane. Did I do a good job with this?_

_So how'd I do? Still good? Complete shit? Let me know, please review._


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma.

This chapter took a long time to write. It is also easily the longest I've written yet.

I apologize in advance if Ranma seems a little out of character for this match, but I wanted it to mirror (in a way) Akane's match. I hope people like it.

And therefore: Here's chapter 10. Enjoy.

_

* * *

-three weeks later-_

Ranma sat in the locker room in the arena where the fight was going to take place. She was nervous, no that was an understatement: she was petrified. Three weeks ago her boyfriend and sensei-turned-training-partner had told her that he felt that she was about ready and that his dad was staying in China waiting for Kyle to call him. She finally after three weeks got enough courage to squeak to Kyle that she was as ready as she would ever be.

Now, here she was in the locker room, within one hundred feet of her long time Idol, whom she was about to fight.

"Akane, I don't know if I can do this," Ranma told her friend.

"Relax," Akane soothed her friend, thinking of the irony of the situation. When she had been about to face Kodachi she had been in Ranma's place and Ranma had been the one consoling her. Now the roles had been reversed.

"Akane," Ranma wailed, "this is the World's Strongest Fighter we're talking about here. Not some high school student or another relatively unknown person. He hasn't lost in nearly forty years!"

"Don't think like that!" Akane told her friend, "Think about all the moves and techniques Kyle taught you. Kyle knows his dad well, he would have trained you to beat his dad would he have?"

"But Kyle's so good!" Ranma bemoaned, "I'm not nearly as good as he is! Why does he think that I'm ready for this?"

"Kyle has told Ryu, who's told me, that you're better than him at many of the techniques he taught you," Akane informed Ranma, "The technique involving multiple hits in a split second, remember that one? On a good day he can land four, that's on a good day. The day we got Dr. Tofu and Kasumi to confess to each other you landed five hits on him like it was no big deal. You're at least as good as he is, Ranma; if not better!"

"But…" Ranma tried again.

"NO BUTS!" Akane declared, "Ranma, you fought almost sixty women in the same day and won, _when you were the underdog_! You told me you were so scared you didn't know how you managed to stay on the log long enough to win. You've managed to teach me to have self-discipline, which I consider a miracle in itself, along with how to cook, sew, swim, act more like a girl, though I don't know how you knew how to do that one yourself. I realize you had help in all of those but you were instrumental in all of my training."

"When Kyle first got her," she continued, "he said that you could last ten minutes against his dad which was longer than anyone had managed in twenty years. You're not just some unknown fighter! You're one of the world's best!"

A knock on the door interrupted the two girls. The door opened, revealing a pretty young girl about Kyle's age.

"Sorry to interrupt," she said, "but we're ready whenever you are."

"Can we ask you are?" Akane asked curiously.

"Oh, that's right, you don't know who I am," the girl said, "My name is Ann; I'm Kyle's twin sister."

"Oh, nice to meet you," Akane said.

Ann smiled, "Ranma, whenever you're ready, dad is waiting," she said before closing the door behind her.

"C'mon Ranma," Akane coaxed, "It's now or never."

"How are you so calm?" Ranma asked still shaking, "This is the World's Stron…."

"Ranma, stop thinking of him like that," Akane said, "You're just psyching yourself out. Think of him not as this 'world's strongest fighter' but as Kyle's dad, a man named Darian Moor, who teaches at a small university somewhere in America."

Ranma sat there for a moment; the only sign that Akane's words had hit something in her mind was that she was no longer shaking.

"C'mon," Akane said again, "Remember, Kyle will be out there with you in the ring. He can't fight for you but he'll give you the weapons you want and he'll be there to support you. Just like a good boyfriend."

----------------------------------------

Ranma didn't know how she managed to get up and leave the locker room. She hardly registered the walk from said locker room to the arena where the fight would take place. But here she was, standing next to Kyle who was acting as her second for this duel, standing in the lowered 'ring' facing the man she had dreamed of facing for over two years. A woman stood next to him.

"That's my mother," Kyle explained, "She's acting as my father's second for this match."

"I'm scared," Ranma confessed to Kyle.

"I know," Kyle told her, "I get scared to when I spar my parents."

Ranma looked at him like he had sprouted a third eye. "But you're so good," she said.

"And they're my parents," Kyle told her.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" the announcer called into the microphone.

"That's my older brother," Kyle whispered to Ranma, "He and Dr. Tofu will be standing by in case one of you is injured badly and needs immediate treatment."

"The event that we have gathered here today to witness is a truly epic battle of Martial Arts Titans! In this corner, the man holding the title 'World's Strongest Fighter', Darian Moor!" Kyle's father stepped forward and bowed, then stepped back.

"In the other corner, the challenger, daughter of one of the acting Grandmaster's of Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, Ranma Saotome!" Ranma imitated Kyle's father in acknowledging the crowd.

"The rules of this match are simple," Kyle's brother explained, "the fighter's are encouraged not to kill each other. There is no time limit to the match. The match will end when one fighter is no longer able to continue or admits defeat. Do both fighters accept these rules?"

Ranma and Darian Moor nodded.

"Then the match may begin. As soon as I get out of the way."

Kyle's brother ran to the edge of the combat area. "Begin!" he yelled.

Ranma and Darian began circling each other, getting a bearing on their opponent's defense. Ranma struck first, sending a right hook into Darian's side. He caught the blow, which opened up his right side. Ranma took immediate advantage of that, sending another blow at him. Darian seemed to have planned on her doing that for he caught her punch before it was halfway to him. Thinking quickly, Ranma opted to head-butt him. This he did not seem to have anticipated.

Darian took the blow but shook it off, kicking Ranma in the stomach. Ranma found herself flying backward and barely managed to roll over and stay on her feet.

'Damn, he's strong,' she thought to herself, 'but I guess that comes with the title.'

She took the brief pause to quickly look over Darian Moor. He was shorter than Kyle, but more built. He dressed like Kyle too.

'Must be where Kyle got his fashion sense from,' she mused.

Darian wore a black tee-shirt with loose blue jeans, and dark boots. Not exactly what you would expect a fighter to be wearing in a fight. Then again, Kyle only wore training clothes for their spars when they were in the dojo.

She didn't have more time to look her opponent over, for he came at her, quite quickly for a man of his age, 'What did Kyle say his father's age was?' Ranma thought as she dodged and blocked a furious assault of kicks and punches, 'Around 84 if I remember correctly. Well Cologne is almost 200 and she's just now starting to deteriorate.'

Ranma jumped over Darian's head and kicked him with the back of her foot. Like Darian, she wasn't wearing training clothes, she wore her typical Chinese outfit that she wore outside of school. It was looser fitting than the jeans and tee-shirt that Darian wore.

'Must use that to my advantage,' she thought as she blocked a kick to her head, kicking her opponent in the head at the same time.

Darian reacted well to this. Since his body's initial reaction to being kicked in the face was to turn away from the source, he twisted his body around, picking up momentum for the foot that was on the ground which he used to kick Ranma under her extended leg, throwing her into the air and to the ground. He then rose to punch her as she lay prone.

Rolling out of the way, Ranma still felt the impact of Darian's fist hitting the surface of the arena. She looked where he had hit the ground, and her eyes widened as she took in the sight of a small fist shaped crater.

'Ok,' she thought, 'He's not just strong. He's really strong.'

She saw Darian run at her and reacted. Her foot shot out, kicking him in his right shin causing him to fall to one knee. She then kicking him in the chin, sending him to his back. As she rose up he pushed her away with both feet.

'Déjà vu,' she thought, 'that happened three weeks ago in a match with Kyle.'

Both back on their feet, Ranma and Darian circled each other again. Darian struck this time, punching her in the gut. She doubled over and he rose to put an elbow strike into her back. Ranma smirked as her right fist plowed into Darian's crotch. He still managed to hit with the elbow strike but with far less force than was originally intended.

They pulled back again, eying each other. They both struck this time; Darian moving in for another elbow strike and Ranma going to tackle Darian. Darian reacted fast, grabbing Ranma and throwing her across the combat area. Ranma skidded to a stop thirty feet away from him. She had twisted her body around as she flew through the air and landed on her feet. She looked up at Darian and noted how far away he was.

'This is farther than Kyle ever managed to throw me,' she swallowed.

She remembered another trick that worked against Kyle. She moved toward Darian, trying to kick him in the side of the head. He caught the blow, but she placed her hand on the ground and hit him with her other foot. Unlike when she used this move on Kyle, she spun around pulling her leg from Darian's grip and stood to face him.

Darian faced her, dropping into a subtle stance for a moment. Ranma recognized it as one of Kyle's and raised her arm to block a kick that came from nowhere. Taking his leg, she spun Darian through the air and tossed him across the field. He landed twenty feet away, on his feet.

"You have learned well," he called to her, "my son is an excellent teacher is he not?"

Ranma blinked, he didn't sound like he had even begun to exert himself.

"He is," she responded, hoping she masked her heavy breathing, "He's used that stance more than once against me, though this is the first time I caught the kick the first time it was used."

"You're skill is impressive then," Darian complimented her, "the last fight I had that was the finishing move. My opponent never saw it coming."

"Perhaps that was because he had never seen it before," Ranma suggested as the two traded blows, she ducked under a kick, rolled behind him and punched him in the back. He staggered forward a step before catching himself and turning around.

"I'm afraid not," Darian informed her, grabbing her arms and kicking her in the chest, causing her to stumble backward, "she was the person who taught me the move originally."

"Then how does Kyle know it?" Ranma grunted, faking a blow to his gut and kicking him in the face.

"The last fight I had was over a year ago," Darian explained, wiping the blood from his nose, "I had seen her fight several times and was impressed by the move, therefore I asked her to teach it to me. This was three years before we fought, I showed Kyle the move before he left for college."

"Hold on," Ranma said, dropping to sweep his legs out from under him, which he jumped over, "the last person you fought was a woman?"

"Surprised?" Darian asked.

"I guess not," Ranma admitted, "after all, what am I?"

Darian grinned, before taking her legs out from under her and, this time, succeeding in punching her as she lay prone. She kicking him in the head again.

"You like to aim for my head," Darian commented, "perhaps it is because my son has a similar fighting style to me and you aim for his head when you spar?"

"Perceptive," Ranma complimented, though inside she cringed, he was probably going to change tactics now and his head would be less vulnerable.

"Well I haven't studied the Art all my life for nothing," Darian commented, "Sword!" he called to Kyle's mother. Kyle's mother grabbed a claymore from the wall and threw it to him. He caught it mid-air.

"Kyle! Katana!" Ranma instructed. Kyle tossed her the katana.

"Interesting choice," Darian commented, swinging the claymore at Ranma, "I hope you know how to fight one of these with one of those." Ranma staggered back from the force behind Darian's blow. Kyle was right about his father and the claymore, and Darian wielded the sword with much more strength than Kyle did.

Ranma parried another blow and thrust her weapon forward. Darian jumped back out of the way.

Darian swung the claymore downward. Ranma had enough time to jump to the side, evading the attack, but only just.

Ranma kicked Darian in the chin. Darian flipped over backward and landed on his feet, slashing at her even before he landed.

Darian blocked a swing from Ranma, and tried to sweep the weapon out of her hands. Ranma mimicked a method of Kyle's and flipped over moving in the rotation of the weapons, nullifying the attempt.

Ranma was beginning to get tired and Darian looked as fresh as he did when he first started the match.

'God, does this man ever get tired?' she thought to herself. Then her heart almost stopped. Darian held the claymore in one hand, calling for another. He caught the flying weapon effortlessly. He was now armed with two of the massive swords.

'Oh, shit,' Ranma thought, holding her hand out and hoping Kyle got the message; he did and another katana appeared in her hand.

-------------------------------

"Wow, Ranma is good!" Ann breathed from the stands. Akane looked over at Kyle's sister.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"James, that's our older brother, has been watching dad fight for nearly thirty years," Ann told her, "in that time, he's seen dad use this style one time against an opponent: The last person to come the closest to beating him."

"Oh," Akane said, "I didn't realize that Ranma was doing that well."

"She's doing great don't worry," Ann reassured her, "you haven't noticed something strange about the match yet have you?"

"What do you mean?" Akane asked Ann, again.

"Ranma has had my dad as an Idol for quite some time now, right?" Ann asked to be clarified.

"Yeah," Akane confirmed.

"Well then she probably knows that dad usually uses an alias when he goes to an official fight," Ann said, "He's using his real name today."

"What's that got to…do…with…are you saying that your dad is expecting to lose?"

"Maybe," Ann smirked, she looked around to see if anybody around them was paying any sort of attention to what the girls were saying.

"Akane," she said softly, leaning closer to Akane to be heard better, "do you want to know a secret?"

"About what?" Akane said just as softly.

"About dad," Ann told her, "Ranma doesn't know this but…"

------------------------------

'Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.' Ranma thought as she blocked, or attempted to block, the strikes of Darian's swords. Even though he only had the strength of one arm behind each blade, the force behind the blows didn't seem to lessen any.

Darian's next blow knocked her left katana out of her grip. The following one knocked the right one out.

'Fuck,' Ranma was all but panicking now, 'how did I ever think that I could stand up to this guy? He's not even human, it seems. He's the World's Strongest Fighter and I'm just…'

"_**Ranma, stop thinking of him like that,"**_

Ranma blinked at Akane's voice in her head. She ducked under another swing as the voice continued.

"_**You're just psyching yourself out. Think of him not as this 'world's strongest fighter' but as Kyle's dad, a man named Darian Moor, who teaches at a small university somewhere in America."**_

Ranma looked at Darian again.

'Funny,' she thought, evading another claymore, 'He looks about as big as _my_ dad, who I can whip around the dojo easily these days.' She jumped over the claymores again, finding a different voice in her head this time.

"_**There are two styles for the Illusion of Control," Kyle explained, "One is the card trick I showed everyone on the train, which I am showing you again here. In this style, you give the audience or your opponent the sense that they have control over what is happening. The other is a mirror image. You are giving your audience or opponent the sense that you have complete control over the situation and there is nothing that can be done about it. Interestingly enough, you can fight the second style with the first, all you have to do is be able to recognize what is going on and play along with it until you see an opportunity to strike."**_

Ranma laughed inwardly, Darian was using the second style. Making it appear that he wasn't tired. Using an intimidating technique to cause his opponent to doubt themselves. It was all a strategy to give him a mental edge over his opponent. Oddly enough her father's voice rang though her head now.

"_**In a match Ranma," Genma Saotome began, "there will come a time when you are exhausted. This is to be expected, fighting is hard work. At this time you will begin to doubt yourself and your abilities, because you are tired. It is crucial to remember when this happens that your opponent has been working just as hard as you have been and therefore is just as tired."**_

Ranma couldn't see any sign of fatigue in Darian's form. He swung the claymores just as hard and fast as he did when he first got them.

'But he has the self-discipline not to let up,' Ranma reminded herself, 'he won't quit until he's too tired to lift the blades.'

She ducked under another swing.

'I need to get one of those blades away from him,' she thought, 'he's backed me away from Kyle so that I can't get any of my weapons.'

Quickly she formed a simple plan. She began to let Darian back her farther into a corner. When she was as far into the corner as he could get her and still wield his swords properly, Darian swung in with his left arm, which Ranma calculated was the weaker of the two. Grabbing the blade close to the hilt, Ranma stepped into Darian's body, twisted around, and yanked the blade from his hand.

Darian was momentarily surprised by Ranma's sudden offensive, but quickly reverted back to his single sword stance. While not as good as Darian was, Ranma dropped into the stance as well.

'Need to get rid of both swords quick,' she thought, 'I don't know how long I can wield this monstrosity.'

Ranma took her chance after a few quick strikes from Darian. Using the same technique he tried earlier, she swept the sword from Darian's had using a circular motion. But unlike Darian's previous attempt she had no intention of keeping her weapon so put as much force into the move as she could. Darian couldn't counter in time to hang onto the blade and both blades flew across the floor landing a ways away.

Before he could react, Ranma stepped in punching him twice in the face and once in the gut.

----------------------------------

"Holy Shit!" Ann exclaimed, "Did you just see what Ranma did?"

"Yeah, she disarmed your dad and punched him a couple times," Ryu said from beside Akane, "why do you ask?"

"You missed it!" Ann cried, "AAARGH, how did you miss that? Ranma hit dad six times there, not just three. She used that multiple hit technique three times in succession!"

"I'm guessing that's impressive," Akane said, looking at Ann like she was out of her mind.

"Of course it's impressive!" Ann yelled, "That's easily the most difficult move Kyle knows! Kyle's also the best at it out of the five of us. And Ranma's better at it than he is!"

"We know," Akane told her, "she hit Kyle five time's a few weeks ago. With 'one' punch." She added on the end.

Ann looked at Ranma with immense respect.

"I like this girl," she said, "I really like this girl." Then she blinked and looked around. "Where'd she go?" she asked.

------------------------------------

Ranma cautiously moved around the ring, staying as quiet as possible. She was well hidden with her 1000 Sea Path technique. Darian could neither sense her nor see her now. Sneaking up behind him she hit him in the back, moving away quickly. Darian spun around, searching for her, but she had already moved away.

She waited until Darian had turned to face her new position to strike. This time she struck him in the shin the kicked him in the face. Darian fell and rolled, getting to his feet and searching for her again.

'Keep it random, Saotome,' Ranma told herself, 'Keep it random.'

She landed several more hits on Darian before he managed to notice a pattern to her movements. By then she had devised a new pattern and moved to set it up.

'This should be the last blow!' she thought smugly, moving in for the 'kill'.

But the blow never landed. Darian caught her fist in the air, twisted around behind her and jabbed his finger into the back of her neck. Ranma suddenly felt ten times weaker than before. She also noticed that she was visible. Had she dropped the 1000 Sea Path Veil too soon?

"You're undoubtedly wondering two things right now," Darian said to her, "How did I find you? And, why am I so tired? The answer to the first question is simple: I could smell you. You used the technique too late in the fight. Since you were covered in sweat, it was only a matter of concentration before I found you and could follow you. As for the second question, I hit a pressure point in your neck that channels your battle aura through your body. If disrupted, the body gets considerably weaker. It wears off after a while, usually after a long nap, or you can have somebody hit the corresponding pressure point. Neither option is available to you during this match. So the next question is: Do you yield?"

Ranma stared at Darian.

'Damn it Kyle,' she cursed to herself, 'why do you always have to be right. You warned me about using the 1000 Sea Path late in the battle, didn't you.'

She looked around, noticing the crowd for the first time, 'The noise must be deafening,' she thought, the crowd in the arena was huge.

'Do I yield?' she thought to herself, 'Can I continue as I am?'

She looked back into the audience. Somehow she found Akane, sitting with Ryu, they both looked anxious. To the left of them, sat Shampoo with Mousse, the pair had started dating a couple weeks after the camping trip and were a disgustingly cute couple. Next to them sat Nabiki and Kasumi, and the rest of her family.

So much had changed since she had arrived here in Nerima. She had friends. She taught Akane to branch out, discipline herself. Both girls were good enough to take on their respective father's and, in Ranma's case, win, in Akane's case, be evenly matched. Akane had her first match. Kyle showed up, with Ryu and Herb. Akane had a boyfriend now. Mousse acted more like a man his age. Nabiki didn't try and make deals with people that were to her profit. Kasumi and Tofu had confessed to each other. Ranma had fallen in love.

Was that enough? Could she live with yielding the match and live with what she and Kyle had brought to her life and the lives of others?

She looked back into the stands. Ayaka and Misaki, her friends from school sat not far from Akane with their boyfriends, all of the cheering exuberantly. Her entire school was in the stands. She could see Ryoga and Akari, sitting with their sumo pig. Herb was sitting there too; it wasn't hard to miss him…her…it in the colorful Chinese clothing he wore.

'They would forgive me for yielding,' she thought, 'most of them are martial artists and understand what is happening.' She was an inch away from opening her mouth and saying "I yield" when something caught her eye.

It was the girl from the locker room; she was standing next to Akane. Kyle's sister did not bother her as much as Akane did though. The look on Akane's face seemed to scream "Don't you dare! Don't you fucking dare!"

Ranma looked over to Kyle next. His face was impassive, but his eyes burned with emotion. They bore into her and it was almost as if his voice was screaming in her head "Who gives a shit about what others think of you! What will you think of yourself if you do this? What of your dream?"

'That's right,' Ranma remembered, 'my dream.'

Her dream to defeat the man in front of her. It had given her motivation to train for a year and a half before she met Kyle and was the reason why she worked so hard with Kyle to get better.

"Do you yield, Ranma Saotome?" she heard Kyle's brother call to her.

"No," she answered in an icy tone, "No, I do not yield. I am Ranma Saotome, and I do. Not. LOSE!"

She dropped into the subtle stance that she had seen Kyle use several time in their sparring matches.

"Using that old trick?" Darian commented, "Let us hope luck is with you, lassie."

He circled around her, looking for an opening. He suddenly rushed at her, juked to the right, and came at her from a different direction.

He never saw it coming. Unlike Kyle, Ranma adapted the stance to her own style and idea, using a punch instead of a kick. Darian rose nearly ten feet into the air, flew back thirty feet, and landed flat on his back.

Ranma watched him for a moment, waiting for him to get up. Then he did something completely unexpected:

He tapped the ground once, with his hand.

Twice.

Three times.

"The match is over," she heard Kyle's brother announce, "Your winner and new World's Strongest Fighter: Ranma Saotome!"

Ranma wasn't sure how the roof to the building stayed on.

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After signing umpteen thousand autographs, having her picture taken who knows how many times, being interviewed by news stations from three different countries (she had to have Ann Moor give translations for the languages she didn't know), and finally being shepherded away by Dr. Tofu to get looked at for injuries, Ranma was back in the locker room with Akane.

"You did it Ranma!" her friend squealed, "You did it! We have to have a party! Kyle's sister said she'd be able to find a perfect place for us to hold it!"

Ranma grinned at her friend, "I hope she takes a while, I feel like I need to sleep for a week."

Akane laughed, then sombered up. "Ann told me something in during the match that I think you should know now," she said.

"What?" Ranma asked, finishing changing into fresh clothing.

"You remember how you said that Kyle's dad hadn't lost in nearly 40 years," Akane said, Ranma nodded.

"Well, Ann told me something interesting," Akane continued, "In 40 years, Darian Moor has lost only one time: to Kyle."

Ranma stared at Akane in disbelief as Akane continued.

"Apparently right before he went off to college, Kyle was at the peak of his training. He and his dad had an unofficial-official match to see how much Kyle had learned. During that match, Darian used the same dual-claymore technique that he used on you because Kyle was close to beating him. But the differences in their versions of the same style of fighting gave Kyle an advantage and he eventually beat his dad. Darian is much stronger than Kyle, but Kyle is has more finesse to his moves and is faster."

Ranma didn't hear more of Akane's speech as she promptly keeled over and fainted.

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_So how did you like the fight? Was it to your expectations? I'm sorry if I seemed to be glorifying Kyle at the end, but you must remember that Ranma can beat Kyle. It isn't explained in the story, but Ranma fainted because she just realized that she should have known that she could beat Darian from the beginning as she could beat Kyle._

_Anyway, one more chapter after this: the epilogue. I'll get that out as soon as I can._

_Let me know how I did, please review._


	12. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. I'm sorry, I've run out of silly ways to say it.

Alrighty then, this is the last chapter. As I said in an earlier authors note I've been running low on idea's for what to do with this story. I had a general idea of how I wanted this to go, but it wasn't very long. That was alright, it didn't need to be long, but I thought it was too short. I hope that what I added in doesn't ruin the story.

Well, here's the epilogue: Enjoy.

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_-2002-_

Akane sat at a booth in Ucchan's. It had been a year since she and Ranma graduated from Furinkan High School and while she had gone on to study at a local university, Ranma had decided that she had had enough school for now and was a sensei at her own dojo. Considering the fact that she, Ranma, was the World's Strongest Fighter she had many students; some of which traveled across the world simply to be trained by her. Kyle, while still actively researching history, had completed his project for Graduate School and now lived with Ranma, helping her at the dojo.

Akane looked up at the door as she heard it open. Ranma walked in, removing her hat and gloves, it was early March and was still rather cold outside. Akane waved to her friend, ushering her over to her table. Ranma spotted her and quickly walked over, sitting down.

"Hello," Ranma greeted Akane, "Sorry I'm a little later than usual, I found something interesting in my home and spaced off the time for a bit."

"What did you find?" Akane asked her friend. The two of them met regularly, about once every other week, here at Ucchan's. Ukyo and Kasumi expected them and had food specially made, waiting for them as they arrived. Kasumi delivered the food to the girls, smiling at Ranma and her sister, then walked back to the kitchens.

"What's Kasumi doing working?" Ranma asked Akane, "Isn't she pregnant?"

"She's only known for a few days, and the doctors have determined that she's only about three and a half weeks along," Akane told her friend, digging into her food, "Now answer my question."

"Sorry," Ranma blushed.

'Ok, this is good,' Akane internally smirked, 'It takes a lot to get Ranma to blush these days.'

Ranma pulled a velvet box out of her coat and put it on the table between the two women. Akane looked at it, then at Ranma, then back at the box, then back at Ranma.

"Is that what I think it is?" she asked.

"It is," Ranma told her, putting the box back in her pocket, "Kyle's been acting a little weird lately, or weird for Kyle anyway," the girls snickered at that, "so I suspected that he was up to something. Once he started meditating more than usual, I began suspect that he was planning on proposing to me. I looked all over the house, because knowing Kyle he's already bought the ring, but couldn't find it in any of the least obvious places that I expected him to hide it in until he was ready."

"So how is it that you have the ring?" Akane asked.

"I looked under my pillow," Ranma said off-hand, causing Akane to choke on her food.

"What?" Akane coughed, "He hid the ring under _your_ pillow?"

"Like I was going to look there for it," Ranma told Akane, "the only reason why I found it was because I decided to change pillows."

"So you're positive he's going to do it?" Akane looked her friend in the eye. Ranma took the box out again and showed Akane the ring. It was beautiful, but simple: a simple gold band, with a pearl adorning it.

"It's even the right size," Ranma said to Akane, putting the box back in her pocket.

"Alright then," Akane said, "What are you going to tell him?"

She smiled as Ranma got a scared look on her face. "You love him," she said to her friend, "He loves you. His family adores you. His dad thinks the way you beat him was hilarious. What's stopping you from saying yes?"

"I don't know," Ranma admitted.

"You realize he's probably as scared as you are," Akane said, "I mean you started looking for the ring because you recognized the signs pointing to him preparing himself to propose. The way you told me about it I'm guessing that this has been going on for two weeks?"

"Three," Ranma corrected her.

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Akane looked up from her book as her boyfriend, Ryu, came in through the door of their apartment. Both of them were still in school, Akane thinking about teaching primary school, and Ryu at the police academy. Ryu was expected to graduate early due to his extensive knowledge of combat fighting. All he had to learn was what they were teaching in the classroom.

"I talked with Ranma today at Ucchan's," she told him, "We think that Kyle is planning to propose to her soon."

"I've known that for about four weeks," Ryu said, "before you get mad at me for not telling you, I promised Kyle I wouldn't tell anyone."

Akane sighed, "Alright, I forgive you," she said, "But you're going to have to be real nice to me for a while to make it up. And I mean _real nice_ to me."

Ryu laughed and picked her up from the chair. "And what do you define as "real nice"?" he asked, kissing her.

"Oh, I'm sure you can figure it out," Akane grinned at him, playing with the edge of his shirt. She kissed him again as he let her feet down to the floor. Walking around him, not once breaking the kiss, she steered him in the direction of their bedroom, pulling him in that direction.

"You know," Ryu said, as they walked into the room, "It's hard to believe that you were once a tomboy."

"Really?" Akane looked up at Ryu innocently, "Why is that?" She began to pull his shirt up over his head.

"Do you think that four years ago you would have imagined yourself doing this?" Ryu asked her once he was completely free of his shirt.

"You have a point," she said, before smirking and kissing him again.

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Ranma stood in the hall of the home she shared with Kyle. She looked down at the little velvet box in her hand. Should she say yes? She couldn't think of a reason not to.

After defeating Darian Moor, she regularly visited with them on vacations, when she wasn't doing something (like camping) with Akane. Darian had agreed to teach her how to use a claymore, and she even had her own custom made one for herself. Ann was a ball of energy, always arguing with her brothers, sometimes making it difficult for them by speaking in a different language and seeing how long it took them to catch up with her. The Moor siblings spoke several languages, seeing as their parents were world famous and went all over.

Ann was the best linguist of the three followed by James. The two of them would sometime have competitions, arguing with each other and every once would have someone, typically Kyle, shout out a new language for them to argue in and they would seamlessly switch to the new language. Kyle was only (_only_ she thought) fluent in six languages: Gaelic, German, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and French; and he was the least skilled of the three.

It was because of the Moor family that Ranma had decided not to go into college. If she desired, she had five private tutors all to herself. Darian had degrees in math and physics; Judith, Darian's wife, had degrees in language and was a qualified nurse; James was a physical therapist, with degrees in biology and exercise science; Ann had a degree in art and was fluent in at least twelve languages, and had knowledge in others; and Kyle had a degree in history.

On top of all that, they were all excellent martial artists. Ranma wondered how the hell they had found time to learn all of the things they knew, but when she thought about it she decided it wasn't too difficult to figure out.

Both Darian and Judith were over one hundred years old, having met when they were fifty. Like Cologne, the control of their battle aura's kept them with a youthful appearance, strength, and gave them long lives. By the time James was born, each of them were over seventy. James was fifteen when Kyle and Ann were born. Kyle and Ann grew up having three teachers: two parents and a much older brother.

Surprisingly, they had several friends growing up. They moved around a fair amount, but they did it frequently enough during their youth that they went back to the same areas every so often, allowing the siblings to meet with their friends.

Ranma looked at the ring again. What did she have to shine with the Moor's? She was just Ranma Saotome, some girl from Japan. Her parents were both Japanese, instead of from Scotland and Norway like Darian and Judith were respectively from. While her parents were martial artists they held nothing to Kyle's parents.

Ranma stopped herself. No, those were lies. She wasn't just some girl from Japan. She was Ranma Saotome: the World's Strongest Fighter. She had been challenged numerous times over the past four years, sixty-three Kyle counted, and she had easily defeated the challengers. Her father, while not the former World's Strongest Fighter, was still world famous for being one of the two pupils of the original Legendary Grandmaster of Anything Goes Martial Arts: Happosai. Supposedly, Happosai had fought Darian Moor and had come the closest to beating him anyone ever came, until Kyle and Ranma.

Ranma smiled to herself. She wasn't a nobody. Her family may not have the pizzazz that Kyle's family had to it, but that was just fine. Judith had advised Ranma shortly after Darian's defeat to keep her life as simple as she could. She had constantly worried about how her children were growing up under the shadows of two Titans, but the Moor siblings seemed to have come out just fine.

Ranma walked to the entrance of the dojo and peaked inside. Kyle was inside doing a rather strenuous kata. He was shirtless, as he usually was these days. Ranma guessed it was to try and boost his ego enough to get himself to propose to her. She didn't mind, she loved looking at Kyle when he had his shirt off, and she wasn't afraid to admit it.

Idly, Ranma wondered if Akane thought her still a virgin. Ranma doubted Akane still was, considering Akane went to college, where the rest of the students were undoubtedly having sex, so Ranma assumed that Akane was probably sleeping with Ryu. Ranma blushed at the thought, but only lightly. After all, she was sleeping with Kyle as well.

'And to think that four years ago, both of us would beat the shit out of the boy who dared ask us for a date,' Ranma thought.

Ranma summoned her courage and opened the door to the dojo. Kyle finished the kata and turned to greet her. "Oh, hey there," he said, she could hear the hint of nervousness in his voice, "How was your get together with Akane?"

"It went well," Ranma told him. She tossed him a towel, "Wipe yourself off before I come over there," she ordered him.

"Yes, Master," Kyle bowed respectfully to her, causing her to giggle at him. Kyle, no matter how nervous he was about something he was trying to plot behind her back, could still be silly. He amazed her with how controlled he was at times, he broke his arm a year ago and just looked at it before saying "Well this is problematic" and snapping the bone back into position and walking to Dr. Tofu's to get a cast put on his arm. He amazed her how relaxed he could be at the same time as well. Kasumi told her that he was making funny comments the entire time he was at the clinic.

"You've been acting a little strange lately," she commented to him, watching him stiffen, "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes," Kyle told her, though she sensed his elevated heart rate (barely, it rose from 49 beats per minute to 60), "I feel just fine."

"Well, in that case," she said, revealing the velvet box, smirking as she sensed his heart rate sky rocket, "I accept your proposal."

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Kyle opened his eyes to look at a dimly lit room. Looking down, he saw Ranma lying on top of him, fast asleep. The ring he had bought five weeks ago, which he had told Ryu about four weeks ago, for which he had begun acting strangely three weeks ago so that Ranma would begin looking for it; which she started two weeks ago, and which she apparently found just a few hours ago, glistened on her finger.

Kyle had been preparing himself for his proposal to her, he had been planning on doing it tomorrow, but she had found the ring first. He had hoped she would, not because he was too scared to propose to her, but because he thought it would be funny for her to find it. When he explained it all to her she stared at him for a moment, then burst out laughing, and that's when Kyle found himself lying on his back in their bed room with Ranma looking down on him. He still had no idea how she got the two of them up to their room so fast.

'Then again,' Kyle thought, hugging his fiancé to him, 'she is the World's Strongest.'

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_Did the ending go well?_

_Let me know, please review._


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